Herbal Remedies for Livestock in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England: Some Examples

Abstract

IN this paper I propose to examine some of the extant herbal remedies used in the cure of various ailments which afflicted livestock at this period, particularly those relating to horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Many of these remedies were made up of simple recipes, consisting of a mixture of various herbs and other substances used magically. Often these were used in the form of amulets oi, in association with odd scraps of formulae or prayers, as a charm to be employed at certain times and under certain limiting conditions, as for example, the 'blood-water cure' for cattle, of which I shall say more later. Silence and secrecy were invariable during the cutting and gathering of the herbs and the curative rite. The supernatural virtues of such amulets were conveyed either by direct contact, i.e. by tying the amulet to the animal, or via the agency of the water in which it would be immersed, and which was then sprinkled over the animal or administered as a drench. By the end of the eighteenth century these charms and amulets with their associated rituals represented the detritus of early magical beliefs. Their real significance had been forgotten, and their continuance was traditionally sanctioned by use, fostered, firstly, by a people only too willing to accept any form of relief, and secondly, by the need of the local wiseman or 'cow doctor' to maintain his position against the advancing tide of rationalism and veterinary science. To do this he developed the charm cure in two ways: he used ingredients such as herbs and water which by wide experience and observation he had found medicinal; and he also invested the cure with an aura of mystery by the use of chants and garbled prayers, by lengthening and increasing the number of presumed active elements, and by introducing conditions of fulfilment so minute and exacting as to make the satisfying of them almost impossible.' If therefore the cure failed, the 'cow doctor' would be able to claim that the conditions had not been fulfilled. Horses. One of the common names of the elecampane (inula helenium) was 'horseheal,' referring to its virtues in the treatment of various cutaneous diseases. The bitter aromatic leaves were also fed to horses to improve their appetites. For a fistula or any other ulcer which would not heal, the following remedy was used in eastern areas of Yorkshire: 'sulphur, mirhe, masticke, francansence, cloves, vitriola rueana; of each a like quantity and beate them to powder, and throw a little of it once in two or three dayes on the sore.'2 In the same area a remedy for farcy, a form of cutaneous glanders, may be noted.3 This was given to the horse in the form of a drench consisting of a quart of old ale and a handful of rue (ruta graveolens) boiled together. This was cooled until lukewarm and then administered to the sick horse. Next, a little aquavitae and rue juice were placed into the horse's ears and secured there with some wool. It was considered a sure cure. The leaves of the box tree (buxus sempervirens) were fed to horses to cure them of the bots, as was an oil made from the savin or juniper (Ouniperus communis) put into a drench.4 For eye troubles in horses, powdered ground ivy (nepeta glechoma) mixed with ale and honey and then strained was recommended as a