FOREWORD TO HERBAL MANUAL

PRACTISING medical herbalists have long recognized the need, evidenced in an increasing public demand, for a popular-priced manual containing an exposition of their attitude towards problems of health and disease, together with a comprehensive and descriptive cyclopedia of the remedies they use, with such other information as is likely to be of use or interest to both general reader and more serious student.

This purpose the present author has thought to achieve by a preliminary survey of the historical background of medical herbalism, followed by an explanation and discussion of the philosophy upon which the herbal practitioner of to-day bases his work. The greater part of the book is devoted to the cyclopxdic dictionary of medicinal and other herbs, with their natural order, botanical and common names and synonyms, their habitats, distinctive features, the parts employed and the therapeutic properties, with uses and dosage.

The better-known herbs, and those which are more commonly seen in prescriptions, as well as those which, for any other reason, may be of unusual interest, have been dealt with, it will be noticed, in greater detail than the less frequently used and discussed plants. Quotations from the writings of herbalists, from Culpeper to the twentieth century, are freely inserted where these were thought to be especially apposite.

It will be observed that to most of the herbs are ascribed double or multiple medicinal actions. Which particular virtue comes to the fore in actual application depends largely on the other agents with which it is combined. Thus, the alterative properties of a herb may be more pronounced in one combination, while in a different prescription its value as a diuretic might become more operative. In the effective allocation of his various medicinal agents to meet precise individual requirements lies an important department of the work of the skilled prescribing herbalist.

The index of therapeutic action will be found helpful in locating suitable herbs in specific forms of ill-health, while the volume would not be complete without the information concerning the gathering of herbs, the glossary of botanical terms used and the very full index of the herbs themselves, under their common and botanical names and synonyms, with which the book ends.

While it is considered that the work will not be without value to both practitioner and student, it is the general public to whom it is primarily addressed. An increasing number of people are turning to herbal healing, many of them for reasons which will be apparent in the following pages.

Scotts Hall, HAROLD WARD.

Westleton, August, 1936.

Saxmundham, Suffolk.