The Old Apothecary’s Lessons Still Promote Good Health Today

By John Voket

On the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, apothecaries were likely in greater demand than medical doctors. While the physicians were often occupied treating gruesome battle injuries, the apothecaries ministered to the many other ailments that plagued troops, from dysentery to fungus infections, to influenza to the many scrapes, rashes, and abrasions too insignificant to require formal medical attention.

One recent Sunday, the Matthew Curtiss House played host to one of these costumed apothecaries as part of the Newtown Historical Society’s Open House and Living History Demonstration series. Robert Young, a retired physician’s assistant from Danbury, came to Newtown in costume, and hauling some of the equipment and medicines of the era to give visitors a glimpse into a world when institutional health care was often meted out on one’s own kitchen table, and effective pharmaceuticals were as close as one’s herb garden.

In a handout provided to visitors, Mr Young succinctly sums up the art and science of dispensing these tried and true remedies. The introduction reads: “By the term Materia Medica, we understand that part of the medical science, which treats of the nature, composition and relation, of the various substances which are employed in the prevention, cure and mitigation of diseases; and also the effect of such substances on the human body. It embraces botany, chemistry, and natural history.’

While chatting with interested visitors, Mr Young shared details of the remedies and advice an apothecary would have provided to colonial families and compared how some of those herbal remedies are used today.

“The remedies used in the colonies combined old world knowledge with Native American lore because some of the plants and minerals with a history of effectiveness were unavailable in America,” he told The Bee during a lull between visitors. “The colonial apothecary learned his trade as an apprentice and had to develop the necessary judgment to deal with variations in the pungency of plants affected by the soil and climate of the growing environment.”

According to Mr Young, his colonial predecessors also had to consider the patients’ financial resources since the cost of a medicine depended on the rarity and amount of time and effort required to process the materials. Mr Young said he equipped the character he portrays based on information he gathered from an 1803 advertisement he found in a preserved copy of The Farmer’s Journal, which advertised the goods and services of one such apothecary, Ebenezer Russell White of Danbury.

“I’ll do 12 or 14 of these appearances each year, either at historical societies like this one in Newtown, or on weekend-long Revolutionary War encampments,” he said. “During those activities I’ll actually dispense some of the more harmless remedies to the reenactment participants as I might have during actual wartime.”

But do not go trying any of these homegrown cures at home, at least not without some formal guidance, he asserted.

“If you’re going to experiment with any type of herbal or natural remedy, don’t go blindly into it or you could cause a lot of problems that might be worse than the original ailment,” he said. “Find yourself a couple of good herbal remedy books and get to know exactly what you’re getting into.”

Mr Young said one of the easiest and most popular herbal remedies is fresh mint, which can be grown as easily in a small garden as an apartment window tray.

“Making a mint tea is still a great way to settle the stomach after you’ve had one too many pork chops,” he said with a smile, holding up a bottle of the sweet smelling ground herb for Newtown Historical Society docent Diane Everett and visitor Bonnie Miller to sample. “Today, mint is universally still one of the most popular brands of store-bought teas, even though you can always have plenty on hand fresh from your window pot.”

Another common and accessible herb is chamomile, he explained.

“But don’t get confused by the chamomile they sell for the beautiful flower it produces, because that type of plant isn’t the best to use for medicinal purposes,” Mr Young said. “You not only need to get the right kind of plant, but there are specific parts of the plant you need to use for maximum effectiveness.”

He suggested Roman chamomile as one that works well for his purposes.

Witch hazel is another common plant that is still used today for abrasions, bug bites, and topical rashes.

“Witch Hazel was actually native to eastern Connecticut — for a time in colonial days you couldn’t get it anywhere else,” Mr Young said. “You shouldn’t use it on open or broken skin, but Native Americans and early apothecaries used to just peel off the bark and apply it to the infected area to cool and heal the itch.”

Another popular remedy of today has its roots in colonial times, Mr Young said.

“Sennapod was grown in the Southeastern colonies and was very effective as a laxative,” he said with a wink. “Today you go into drugstores and buy it as Sennacot, and pay five dollars for a bottle. But its simply pure refined sennapod extract.”

One of the more recent natural remedies was actually discounted in colonial times, and only rediscovered to have great benefits near the end of the Civil War, Mr Young said. The herb, called foxglove, yielded an alkaloid called digitalis, which is used to effectively treat heart disease and high blood pressure to this day, with great success.

While many of Mr Young’s more informed contemporary visitors can easily identify many of the herbs he brings to his demonstrations, he still runs into some grandmothers who recall using many of the same natural medicines, because they grew them in their own gardens in their younger days.

“Even as recently as a half-century ago, there were still many people in this country who wouldn’t attend a physician, or who just couldn’t afford the medicines dispensed at commercial pharmacies,” he said.

He pointed out another section from his handout that details information about gathering natural remedies, which are practices he, and his predecessors from colonial times, practice:

“Roots should be collected in the spring, before the sap begins to rise or in the fall after the top is dead or ripe.

“Medicinal plants should be gathered while in blossom; their virtues, however, are not essentially diminished until they begin to wither.

“Seeds should be gathered when fully ripe.

“All medicinal vegetables should be dried in the shade; and great care taken that they don’t ferment or mould; when thoroughly dried, they should be packed close, and kept from the air, as most vegetables lose a large proportion of their virtues by long exposure to the action of the atmosphere.”