CORRESPONDENCE.
Folk-Medicine in London.
I have lately had opportunities for enquiry from druggists and herbalists as to folk remedies still in use in London, and have been able to record the following interesting examples:
Orris root.—This is the root of Iris florentina, and, apart from its ordinary uses, some magical quality is ascribed to it. In Whitechapel, the Jews use it to rub the gums of children cutting their teeth. But they always select a piece of the root bearing a fanciful resemblance to a human figure, and, in addition, they select pieces more or less suggestive of male and female forms. The male or "He Root" is used to rub the gums of girl babies, while the "She Root" is used for boys. I obtained confirmation of this custom in Shoreditch, Bow, and Barking. Some druggists, however, were quite ignorant of this fact, but they were not in a Jewish locality. They, on the other hand, sold orris root carefully shaped to a form suggested by a child's "coral" (which, by the way, is phallic).
Dragon's blood.—I am informed by a herbalist that factory girls, and others of the same class, buy penny packets of this gum as a love philtre. My first informant found this out quite by accident, being rather surprised at the unusual demand for this material at certain times. When I consulted my other friends in Shoreditch and Bromley-by-Bow, they admitted, with some amusement, the demand for dragon's blood, but could not imagine the reason, although they said the girls always seemed half-ashamed when asking for it.[1]
- ↑ Cf. vol. xx., p. 221 (Staffs.); N. & Q., S. 1. vol. ix., p. 242 (no locality). "Dragon's blood " is "the inspissated juice of certain tropical plants of a red colour, especially of the tree Pterocarpus draco."
