Nich Culpeper - The English Physitian Or An Astrologo Physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation (1022.0 Kb)
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The Subject which I here fixed my thoughts upon is not only the Description and Nature of Herbs, which had it been all, I had authority sufficient to bear me out in it, for Solomon employed part of that wisdom he asked, and received of God in searching after them, which he wrote in Books, even of all Herbs, Plants and Trees some say those Writings were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar being kept in the Temple at Jerusalem for the publick view of the People, but being transported to Babylon in the Captivity, Alexa... More >>>Book can be downloaded.
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The Subject which I here fixed my thoughts upon is not only the Description and Nature of Herbs, which had it been all, I had authority sufficient to bear me out in it, for Solomon employed part of that wisdom he asked, and received of God in searching after them, which he wrote in Books, even of all Herbs, Plants and Trees some say those Writings were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar being kept in the Temple at Jerusalem for the publick view of the People, but being transported to Babylon in the Captivity, Alexander the GREAT TYRANT at the taking of Babylon gave them to his Master Aristotle, who committed them to the mercy of the fire.
All that have written of Herbs either in the English or not in the English Tongue, have no waies answered my intents in this Book, for they have intermixed many, nay very many outlandish Herbs, and very many which are hard, nay not at all to be gotten, and what harm this may do I am very sensible of. Once a Student in Physick in Sussex sent up to London to me, to buy for him such and such Medicines, and send them down, which when I viewed, they were Medicines quoted by authors living in another Nation, and not to be had in London for Love nor Money, so the poor man had spent much pains and Brains in studying Medicines for a Disease that were not to be had so a man reading Gerards or Parkinsons Herbal for the Cure of a Disease so may as like as not, light on an Herb that is not here to be had, or not without great diffuculty, if possible but in mine, all grow neer him. Nich Culpeper, Gent. Student in Physick and Astrologie
1616-1654
About Author:
Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 - 10 January 1654) was an English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer. His published books include The English Physitian (1652) and the Complete Herbal (1653), which contain a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, and Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655), which is one of the most detailed documents known on the practice of medical astrology in Early Modern Europe.
Culpeper spent the greater part of his life in the English outdoors cataloging hundreds of medicinal herbs. He criticized what he considered the unnatural methods of his contemporaries, writing: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my mother Nature, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. Diligence, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by Mr. Honesty, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it."
Culpeper came from a long line of notable people including Thomas Culpeper, the lover of Catherine Howard (also a distant relative) who was sentenced to death by Catherine's husband, King Henry VIII.
Culpeper was the son of Nicholas Culpeper (Senior), a clergyman. Culpeper studied at Cambridge, and afterwards became apprenticed to an apothecary. After seven years his master absconded with the money paid for the indenture, and soon after this, Culpeper's mother died of breast cancer. Culpeper married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, which allowed him to set up a pharmacy in the halfway house in Spitalfields, London, outside the authority of the City of London at a time when medical facilities in London were at breaking point. Arguing that "no man deserved to starve to pay an insulting, insolent physician", and obtaining his herbal supplies from the nearby countryside, Culpeper was able to provide his services for free. This, and a willingness to examine patients in person rather than simply examining their urine (in his opinion, "as much piss as the Thames might hold" did not help in diagnosis), Culpeper was extremely active, sometimes seeing as many as forty people in one morning.
Using a combination of experience and astrology, Culpeper devoted himself to using herbs to treat the illnesses of his patients.
During the early months of the English Civil War he was accused of witchcraft and the Society of Apothecaries tried to rein in his practice. Alienated and radicalised he joined a trainband in August 1643 and fought at the First Battle of Newbury, where he carried out battlefield surgery. Culpeper was taken back to London after sustaining a serious chest injury from which he never recovered. There, in co-operation with the Republican astrologer William Lilly, he wrote the work 'A Prophesy of the White King', which predicted the king's death.
He died of tuberculosis in London on 10 January 1654 at the age of 37. Only one of his eight children, Mary, survived to adulthood.