Regency Reader Questions: Herbs and Broken Bones

Moniker/Name: Brenda

Your Question: What medicines, herbal or otherwise, were used primarily in the regency era? For instance, was there a ‘go to’ solution for stomach ailments, headaches, muscle aches?  Also, could someone survive broken bones if they were really bad breaks? I am thinking of a crushed bone or compound fracture.

Source of Question: Just curious

Thank you Brenda for your wonderful and interesting questions!

First, about broken bones…

Manuals and other reference books from the Regency era indicate that tending broken bones were a common problem with both homegrown knowledge and physician science for the setting of all types of fractures.  Undoubtedly, the success of the remedy entirely depended on the skill of the doctor or attendant (in some cases farriers/vets, midwifes, or others were all that were on hand).

Although rudimentary by today’s standards, splints, wooden casts, and plaster techniques were available to the doctors of the Regency for administering to broken bones, setting, and keeping immobile while the bones mended.

(From: The principles of surgery: as they relate to wounds, ulcers, fistulæ, aneurisms, wounded arteries, fractures of the limbs, tumors, the operations of trepan and lithotomy. Also of the duties of the military and hospital surgeon, Sir Charles Bell, 1826)

Sir Charles writes on compound fractures, warning of fever, delirum and the many steps to assure the patients comfort and healing.  Likely, he tells us, the fever and delirum will last for eight to ten days during which the doctor will need to be present to dilate the wound, stretch the bone, and reduce the bone protrusions. After the fever breaks into a chill, warm flannels and warm wine or cordial, plus a little laudanum, will help soothe the invalid.

He cautions that bleeding, if necessary, should only occur after the physician is able to obtain a steady pulse “though the vulgar after every accident are in haste to bleed.”

In the The London Medical and Physical Journal, Volume 10 (1803) another physician describes similar concern with country doctoring:

From reading many of these contemporary resources, it is evident that much was learned in the battle fields where all type of serious wounds needs must be triaged and treated in rustic setting. Also, breaks are an inevitable occurence of the human condition, likely resulting in non-professional experience with bone-setting among many country dwellers.

So, while there was knowledge enough to help minimize mortality among patients with compound fractures, substandard medical care (an age old problem) or vigorous inexperience could result in further injury and even death.  In other words, compound fractures or crushed bones resulting in death was not a foregone conclusion, but the survival of the injured party relied on luck, constitution and well-informed medical attention.

As for medicinal herbs, I will assume (for my sanity) that you are curious about those sold by herbalist and native to the UK.  Using Culpeper’s Regency contemporary encylopedia of herbs, I have compiled a shortlist of the most common medicinal plants.  For more in depth and a variety of other herbs, check out the online Culpeper “The Complete Herbal.”

Common Herb and uses in Regency era England	Commonly   grown…
Bazil (Basil)   Used dried   as snuff to relieve headaches and colds.   Culpeper   said it “expels both birth and after-birth.”   Also used   as a strewing herb.	In gardens, harvested late in summer.
Camomile (Chamomile)   Infused as   a tea for indigestion and gas, and “all the pains and stitches in the side”.   Strewing   herb and insect repellent.   Added to   bath it was used as a muscle relaxant, to reduce swelling, and stimulate   bodily functions.   Syrup made   of the juice of Camomilein white wine was remedy against the jaundice and   dropsy.    The flowers boiled in lye, are good to wash   the head, and comfort both it and the brain.   The oil   made of the flowers much used against all hard swellings, pains or aches,   shrinking of the sinews, or cramps, or pains in the joints.	Indigenous   to England and Western Europe.  Was   cultivated for medicinal purposes primarily in Surrey.
Feverfew   For   “female hysteria,” melancholia and   Constipation.   First   noted for its anti-inflammatory properties by Greek Herbalist, Dioscorides.   Reduce   fever and to treat headaches, arthritis	Feverfew was native to Eurasia and then cultivated worldwide.
Garlic Chives   This was   anciently accounted the poor man’s treacle, it being a remedy for all   diseases and hurts (except those which itself breed.)    Provokes urine, and women’s courses   Helps heal   biting of mad dogs and other venomous creatures   kills   worms in children   cuts and   voids tough phlegm    purges the head, helps the lethargy   good   preservative against, and a remedy for any plague, sore, or foul ulcers;   takes away   spots and blemishes in the skin,   eases   pains in the ears   also held   good in hydropick diseases, the jaundice, falling sickness, cramps,   convulsions, the piles or hæmorrhoids, or other cold diseases.   Its heat   is very vehement, and all vehement hot things send up but ill-favoured   vapours to the brain. In coleric men it will add fuel to the fire; in men   oppressed by melancholy, it will attenuate the humour, and send up strong   fancies, and as many strange visions to the head; therefore let it be taken   inwardly with great moderation; outwardly you may make more bold with it.	Related   to the onion, English garlic was most prevalent as food stuff for working   classes well into the 19th century.
Lavender   Falling sickness or giddiness of the brain.   insect   repellant.   Often   combined with water or doused on clothing for both perfume and to help   fainting or nausea.	In the mint family, different species are found   worldwide.  Most common in temperate   climates.
Lovage Then   Diuretic   and carminative action for disorders of the stomach and feverish attacks,   especially for cases of colic and flatulence in children   Noted for   exciting perspiration and opening obstructions.   An   infusion of the root was recommended for gravel, jaundice and urinary   troubles    an infusion ‘being dropped into the eyes   taketh away their redness or dimness   The   distilled water is good for quinsy if the mouth and throat be gargled and   washed therewith    The decoction drunk three or four times a day   is effectual in pleurisy   The leaves   bruised and fried with a little hog’s lard and laid hot to any blotch or boil   will quickly break it.’	Not   considered to be indigenous to Great Britain, and when occasionally found   growing apparently wild, it is probably a garden escape. Native to the   Mediterranean region.
Mint   “a marvelous   wholesome” for the stomach   “it   stayeth the hicket” [hiccup]   good   against watery eyes   a sure remedy   for children’s sore heads.   dry up   excess milk in nurses and, taken in wine, would help women in childbearing.   “healing,   binding and drying” and with vinegar said to stop bleeding.   Cures gum   or mouth sores   soothes   head and memory   prevents   “ill-savored breath”   with salt   good for wounds from the “biting of a mad dog.”	Grows best in wet environments, perennial.  Many varieties native worldwide.
Rosemary   helps all   cold diseases both of the head, stomach, liver, and belly.   The   decoction thereof in wine, helps the cold distillations of rheum into the   eyes    giddiness or swimmings therein, drowsiness   or dullness of the mind and senses like a stupidness, the dumb palsy, or loss   of speech, the lethargy, and fallen- sickness, to be both drank, and the   temples bathed therewith.    It helps the pains in the gums and teeth, by   rheum falling into them, not by putrefaction, causing an evil smell from   them, or a stinking breath.   helps a   weak memory, and quickens the senses.    comfortable to the stomach in all the cold   griefs thereof, helps both retention of meat, and digestion, the decoction or   powder being taken in wine.   It is a   remedy for the windiness in the stomach, bowels, and spleen, and expels it powerfully.	Originally   Mediterranean, flowers in spring and summer in temperate climates, but the   plants can be in constant bloom in warm climates; flowers are white, pink,   purple or deep blue
Sage   useful   against snakebite   turn hair   black   provokes   urine, brings down women’s courses   stays the   bleeding of wounds and cleanses foul ulcers.   for all   pains of the joints, whether inwardly or outwardly   the   lethargy such as are dull and heavy of spirit, the palsy;   for the   diseases of the chest or breast.   Sage is of   excellent use to help the memory, warming and quickening the senses;   “Gargles   likewise are made with Sage, rosemary, honey-suckles, and plantain, boiled in   wine or water, with some honey or allum put thereto, to wash sore mouths and   throats, cankers, or the secret parts of man or woman, as need requires”   boiled to   bathe the body and the legs in the Summer time, especially to warm cold   joints, or sinews, troubled with the palsy and cramp, and to comfort and   strengthen the parts.	Perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems,   grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the family   Lamiaceae and is native to the Mediterranean region, though it has   naturalized in many places throughout the world.
Thyme   a noble   strengthener of the lungs; neither is there scarce a better remedy growing   for that disease in children which they commonly call the Chin- cough, than   it is.    It purges the body of phlegm, and is an   excellent remedy for shortness of breath.   It kills   worms in the belly    provokes the terms, gives safe and speedy   delivery to women in travail, and brings away the after birth.   An   ointment made of it takes away hot swellings and warts   helps the   sciatica and dullness of sight   takes away   pains and hardness of the spleen.   Tis   excellent for those that are troubled with the gout.   eases   pains in the loins and hips.   The herb   taken any way inwardly, comforts the stomach much, and expels wind.	Thyme is   best cultivated in a hot, sunny location with well-drained soil. It is   generally planted in the spring, and thereafter grows as a perennial. It can   be propagated by seed, cuttings, or by dividing rooted sections of the plant.   It tolerates drought well.
Yarrow   An   ointment of them cures wounds;   it stops   the terms in women   the   ointment of it is not only good for green wounds, but also for ulcers and   fistulas, especially such as abound with moisture.   It stays   the shedding of hair, the head being bathed with the decoction of it;   inwardly taken it helps the retentive faculty of the stomach:    it helps the gonorrhea in men, and the   whites in women,   helps such   as cannot hold their water;   and the   leaves chewed in the mouth eases the tooth-ache	It is native to temperate regions of the Northern   Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America.