Nicholas Culpeper
Nicholas Culpeper | |
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Nicholas Culpeper (18 October 1616 – 10 January 1654) was an English
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
In 1640, Culpeper married Alice Field, the 15-year-old heiress of a wealthy
During the early months of the
Political beliefs
Influenced during his apprenticeship by the radical preacher
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
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.
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
Some examples of herbs, their claimed uses and preparations, as set out in The English Physitian.[8]
- Anemone, as a juice applied externally to clean ulcerations, infections and cure leprosy; or inhaled to clear the nostrils
- Bedstraw, boiled in oil and applied externally as a stimulant, or consumed as an aphrodisiac; also applied raw externally to stimulate clotting
- Burdock, crushed and mixed with salt, as a treatment for dog bites; taken orally for flatulence, as an analgesicfor tooth pain, and to strengthen the back
- Cottonweed, boiled in lye as a treatment for head lice or infestations in cloth or clothing; inhaled for headaches and coughing
- phenylpropane[13])
- Fleabane, for bites from "venomous beasts", and its smoke for killing gnats and fleas; but dangerous to pregnant women
- alkaloids:[14] cardiac glycosides in the roots and ranunculin and protoanemonin, especially in the leaves and sap.[15][16])
- Mugwort, for inducing labour, assisting in birth and afterbirth, and easing labour pains
- vertigo, and helping expel gas. (The active constituent of pennyroyal is now known to be pulegone.)
- Savory, for helping expel gas, and mixed with peas and beans for this reason
- Wood Betony, for "falling sickness" and headaches, anti-anoretic, "helps sour belchings", cramps, convulsions, bruises, afterbirth, gout, and killing worms
Partial list of works
- A Physical Directory, or a Translation of the London Directory (1649) – translation of the Pharmacopoeia Londonesis of the Royal College of Physicians.
- Directory for Midwives (1651)
- Semeiotics Uranica, or (An Astrological Judgement of Diseases) (1651)
- Catastrophe Magnatum or (The Fall of Monarchy) (1652)
- The English Physitian (1652), later entitled The Complete Herbal[1]
- Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick (1655)
- A Treatise on Aurum Potabile (1656): This is certainly not by Nicholas Culpeper and lacks his style of writing. It is a confusing and repetitious work by John Heydon.
See also
- Alternative medicine
- Herbalism
- Medical astrology
- History of science
- Medication
- Pharmacognosy
- Astrological botany
- Astrology
- List of plants in The English Physitian (1652 book)
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d Patrick Curry: "Culpeper, Nicholas (1616–1654)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004)
- ^ I. e. confinement to a sickbed or an astrological chart taken then. [www.Collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 10 September 2019.]
- ^ Culpeper, Nicholas (1835). The Complete Herbal. University of California Libraries (1835 ed.). London: Thomas Kelly.
- ^ Lacey Baldwin Smith, A Tudor Tragedy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1961.
- ^ 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) - Washington Post(online). Retrieved 31 October 2007.
- ^ Robert Hartle, 2017, The New Churchyard: from Moorfields marsh to Bethlem burial ground, Brokers Row and Liverpool Street, Crossrail: London, p. 177.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Arber (2010), p. 261.
- ^ Rohde, Eleanour Sinclair (1922). Old English Herbals. London: Longmans, Green and Co. p. 166. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
- ^ Boggs, Kate Doggett (1932). Prints and Plants of Old Gardens. Richmond, Virginia: Garrett & Massie, Publishers. pp. 21–22. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
- ^ 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.
- S2CID 46187608.
- ^ Cary, Bill (24 March 2013). "Hellebores – deer resistant and made for shade". Gannett Co., Inc. The Journal News; White Plains, N.Y.
- ^ "Helleborus niger – Christmas Rose". Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- ^ "Helleborus orientalis". NC State University.
Bibliography
- The English Physician Enlarged : With Three Hundred and Sixty-Nine Medicines, made of English Herbs, that were not in any impression until this. Being an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation ... . Barker, London [1800] XML (Digital edition) pdf by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
- ISBN 978-1-108-01671-1.
- Culpeper, Nicholas (1995). Culpeper's Complete Herbal: A Book of Natural Remedies of Ancient Ills (The Wordsworth Collection Reference Library) (The Wordsworth Collection Reference Library). NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company. ISBN 1-85326-345-1.
- Woolley, Benjamin (2004). The herbalist: Nicholas Culpeper and the fight for medical freedom. Toronto: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-712657-3.
- Thulesius, O (December 1996). "Nicholas Culpeper, a 17th-century physician of herbal medicine: What grows in England will cure the English". PMID 9011726.
- McCarl, M. R. (1996). "Publishing the works of Nicholas Culpeper, astrological herbalist and translator of Latin medical works in seventeenth-century London". PMID 11620074.
- Buchanan, W (January 1995). "Nicholas Culpeper's physick for rheumatics". S2CID 36786975.
- Thulesius, O (September 1994). "Nicholas Culpeper, father of English midwifery". PMID 7932467.
- Dubrow, H (1992). "Navel battles: interpreting Renaissance gynecological manuals". PMID 11616249.
- Bloch, H (December 1982). "Nicholas Culpeper, M. D. (1616 to 1654). Medical maverick in seventeenth-century England". PMID 6760002.
- Jones, D. A. (August 1980). "Nicholas Culpeper and his Pharmacopoeia". PMID 11630704.
- "The way it was. Nicholas Culpeper—the complete herbalist". PMID 5177326.
- "Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654)—Physician-Astrologer". PMID 14100140.
- POYNTER, F. N. (January 1962). "Nicholas CULPEPER and his books". PMID 14037402.
- COWEN, D (April 1956). "The Boston editions of Nicholas Culpeper". PMID 3306948.
External links
- Works by Nicholas Culpeper at Project Gutenberg
- Culpeper's The English Physitian (1652) Archived 2 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine – Electronic Texts in the History of Medicine – Medical Library – Yale University
- The Complete Herbal (1653)
- This Sceptered Isle (BBC)
- Biography of Culpeper
- Culpeper's Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Human Virtues in the Body of Man
- Opus Astrologicum, Nicholas Culpeper (PDF 2 MB) Archived 18 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Directory for Midwives, Nicholas Culpeper (PDF 14,3 MB) Archived 18 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Directory Astrological Judgment of Diseases, Nicholas Culpeper (PDF 8,8 MB) Archived 18 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Works by Nicholas Culpeper at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)