Nicholas Culpeper

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Nicholas Culpeper

Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 – 10 January 1654) was an English

medicinal herbs. He scolded contemporaries for some of the methods they used in herbal medicine: "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."[3]

Culpeper came from a line of notabilities, including the courtier Thomas Culpeper, who was reputed to be a lover of Catherine Howard (also a distant relative), the fifth wife of Henry VIII.[4][5]

Biography

Culpeper was the son of Nicholas Culpeper (senior), a cleric. Shortly after his birth his father died and he was taken to Isfield, the home of his maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Attersoll, where he was brought up by his mother. Attersoll was an influence on the young boy's political and religious beliefs and taught him both Latin and Greek. As a boy Culpeper became interested in astronomy, astrology, time, his grandfather's collection of clocks, and medical texts in Attersoll's library. Meanwhile his grandmother introduced him to the world of medicinal plants and herbs. He would go on, throughout his life, spending time in the countryside cataloguing plants.

From the age of 16 he studied at

Cambridge, but it is not known at which college, although his father studied at Queens', and his grandfather was a member of Jesus College. He was then apprenticed to an apothecary. After seven years his master absconded with the money paid for the indenture, and soon after, Culpeper's mother died of breast cancer.[6]

In 1640, Culpeper married Alice Field, the 15-year-old heiress of a wealthy

Thames might hold" did not help in diagnosis), Culpeper was extremely active, sometimes seeing as many as 40 patients in a morning. Using a combination of experience and astrology
, he devoted himself to using herbs to treat his patients.

During the early months of the

astrologer William Lilly on 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 and was buried in New Churchyard, Bethlem.[1][7] Only one of his seven children, Mary, reached adulthood. He was survived by his wife, Alice, who married the astrologer John Heydon
in 1656. The date of her death is uncertain: some sources say 1659, but others that she was licensed as a midwife in 1665.

Political beliefs

Influenced during his apprenticeship by the radical preacher

College of Physicians. In his youth, Culpeper translated medical and herbal texts for his master, such as the London Pharmacopaeia from Latin. During the political turmoil of the English Civil War, the College of Physicians was unable to enforce its ban on the publication of medical texts, and Culpeper deliberately chose to publish his translations in vernacular English as self-help medical guides for use by the poor, who could not afford to consult physicians. He followed them up with a manual on childbirth
and with his main work, The English Physician, which was deliberately sold cheaply. It became available also in colonial America and has been in print continually since the 17th century.

Culpeper saw medicine as a public asset, not a commercial secret, and the prices physicians charged as too high compared with the cheap, universal availability of nature's medicine. He felt the use of Latin and the high fees charged by doctors, lawyers and priests worked to deprive the public of power and freedom.

Three kinds of people mainly disease the people – priests, physicians and lawyers – priests disease matters belonging to their souls, physicians disease matters belonging to their bodies, and lawyers disease matters belonging to their estate.

Culpeper was a radical in his time, angering his fellow physicians by condemning their greed, unwillingness to stray from

Society of Apothecaries were similarly incensed by the way he suggested cheap herbal remedies, as opposed to their expensive concoctions.[8]

Philosophy of herbalism

Culpeper attempted to make medical treatments more accessible to lay persons by educating them about maintaining their health. Ultimately his ambition was to reform the system of medicine by questioning traditional methods and knowledge and exploring new solutions for ill health. The systematisation of the use of herbals by Culpeper was a key development in the evolution of modern pharmaceuticals, most of which originally had herbal origins.[8]

Culpeper's emphasis on reason rather than tradition is reflected in the introduction to his Complete Herbal. He was one of the best-known astrological botanists of his day,[9] pairing the plants and diseases with planetary influences, countering illnesses with nostrums that were paired with an opposing planetary influence. Combining remedial care with Galenic humoral philosophy and questionable astrology, he forged a strangely workable system of medicine; combined with his "Singles" forceful commentaries, Culpeper was a widely read source for medical treatment in his time.

Though widely read his reputation was quite mixed. Eleanour Sinclair Rohde wrote of him, "One cannot help suspecting that Culpeper knew perfectly well what nonsense he was talking, but that he also realised how remunerative such nonsense was and how much is customers were impressed by it."[10] Similarly other modern writers assert that even in his own time he was regarded as, "something of a fraud" or a quack.[11]

Legacy

Culpeper's translations and approach to using herbals have had an extensive impact on medicine in early North American colonies, and even modern medications.

foxglove, the botanical precursor to digitalis, used to treat heart conditions. His influence is demonstrated by the existence of a chain of "Culpeper" herb and spice shops in Canada, North America and beyond, and by the continued popularity of his remedies among New Age and alternative holistic medicine practitioners.[8]

Nicholas is featured as the title protagonist in Rudyard Kipling's story "Doctor of Medicine", part of his Puck of Pook's Hill anthology.

Excerpts from The English Physitian

The title page of The English Physitian

Some examples of herbs, their claimed uses and preparations, as set out in The English Physitian.[8]

Partial list of works

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Patrick Curry: "Culpeper, Nicholas (1616–1654)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004)
  2. ^ I. e. confinement to a sickbed or an astrological chart taken then. [www.Collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 10 September 2019.]
  3. ^ Culpeper, Nicholas (1835). The Complete Herbal. University of California Libraries (1835 ed.). London: Thomas Kelly.
  4. ^ Lacey Baldwin Smith, A Tudor Tragedy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1961.
  5. ^ a b Harmes, Paul and Hart-Davies, Christina (January 2014). "Sussex Botanical Recording Society newsletter, pp8-9" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Washington Post
    (online). Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  7. ^ Robert Hartle, 2017, The New Churchyard: from Moorfields marsh to Bethlem burial ground, Brokers Row and Liverpool Street, Crossrail: London, p. 177.
  8. ^ a b c d Culpeper, Nicholas (2001). "The English Physician (1663) with 369 Medicines made of English Herbs; Rare book on CDROM". Herbal 1770 CDROM. Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  9. ^ Arber (2010), p. 261.
  10. ^ Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair (1922). Old English Herbals. London: Longmans, Green and Co. p. 166. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  11. ^ Boggs, Kate Doggett (1932). Prints and Plants of Old Gardens. Richmond, Virginia: Garrett & Massie, Publishers. pp. 21–22. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b Sajna, Mike (9 October 1997). "Herbs have a place in modern medicine, lecturer says". University Times, 30(4), University of Pittsburgh. Archived from the original on 2 September 2006. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  13. S2CID 46187608
    .
  14. ^ Cary, Bill (24 March 2013). "Hellebores – deer resistant and made for shade". Gannett Co., Inc. The Journal News; White Plains, N.Y.
  15. ^ "Helleborus niger – Christmas Rose". Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
  16. ^ "Helleborus orientalis". NC State University.

Bibliography

External links