Health
Grandma's remedies Print E-mail
Written by Cherry Chappell, 2008   
Cherry Chappell describes the significant effect women - some of them WI members - have had down the centuries on medical practice the world over.

A few years ago my mother asked me to obtain a supply of bicarbonate of soda for her. Simple enough, I thought, but then discovered I could only buy little bags for use in cooking.

In the end I placed a special order, costing £1.20 for a 37p packet - obviously, bicarbonate of soda was hardly worth the effort in profit terms.

It was, however, one of my grandmother's sovereign remedies for treating sunburn: make it into a paste to apply or, if the sunburnt area was quite extensive, pour a handful or two into a cool bath.

A while later, another family member related to me how she had treated her milkman when he was stung by a bee: she removed the sting and gave him half an onion to hold on the site of the sting to take away the pain.

All this set me wondering how many other remedies and therapies have been lost, or forgotten, over time; and so the idea for my book Grandma's Remedies was born.

Initially, I assumed it would be an A to Z of folk remedies. This has turned out to be a very important part of it, and the range of remedies people - including many Women's Institute members - have shared with me, is fascinating.

There are, too, other tales to tell and voices of true heroines to be heard. Women have always been the guardians of family and community health, yet few made it to the top of the orthodox medical tree - and then only in very recent times - because they were not allowed to study.

Despite this, women throughout history have distinguished themselves, starting in the 11th century with Trotula, an Italian physician known as the mother of gynaecology, who held a chair at the world-renowned medical school of Salerno. She practised at a time when few male doctors understood female anatomy.

Trotula was followed by Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century nun who also wrote several books on medical practices. Both women had their detractors - some even disputed that Trotula existed - although there are plenty of contemporary reports of her, not least a reference in The Canterbury Tales.  

What has so shocked me during the research for my book has been the belittling of women's powers and a denial of their normal bodily processes by the early and medieval Christian church.

There was, for example, the belief that women should suffer the pains of menstruation and childbirth as punishment for the Sin of Eve, but Trotula disputed this, even advocating the use of opiates. Both Trotula and Hildegard believed that if a woman did not conceive it might be due to a defect in the man as much as in the woman; and this view was deeply resented.

From the 13th century through to the 20th century, women were unable to study or practise medicine. In medieval times, those who tried to do so were frequently accused of witchcraft and persecuted.

Many were tortured and imprisoned; some were even executed. Women's care and experience therefore became confined to homes, farms and manors, or at most - mainly in the area of midwifery - used in the service of small rural communities.
 
The ladies of the manor also played their part. As we know from her highly personal and captivating diary, The Private Life of an Elizabethan Lady (1599-1605), Lady Margaret Hoby saw it as an integral part of her duties to look after not only her family but all her servants and tenants and their dependants.

Later, in the Victorian period when it became possible for women to undertake rudimentary training, there were yet more heroines. One was Mary Seacole, a "doctress" from Jamaica, who applied to join Florence Nightingale and her team of nurses during the Crimean War.

Despite her experience in treating tropical diseases, which were rife in the Crimea, Mary was rejected - probably because of her colour. She promptly self-funded her own trip and became a legend for treating wounded soldiers from both sides, often while under fire on the battlefield.

She also set up a hotel as "the comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers". After the Crimean War, Mary went back to London, penniless and in poor health, and was only saved from destitution by a public appeal.

During the first half of the 20th century, without a free national health service and chains of local pharmacies, people continued to take control of their own health care, adapting their lives to suit their capacities and constitutions. 

One of the stories I relate in Grandma's Remedies shows how British women during the Second World War rallied to maintain the supply of medicines.

Prior to that, pharmaceutical materials were imported from Germany and France. Suddenly, these sources were unavailable, and alternatives from the then Commonwealth countries were expensive to transport and had to run the gauntlet of the German blockade.

In the First World War, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had asked people to collect herbs. However, this had limited effect because the herbs were often incorrectly dried and stored or were mixed up, rendering them useless.

Aware of this, in June 1941, the Minister of Health formed a special committee to consider how herbs could be properly harvested. This led to the formation of herb committees in every county - 38 in all. It was also agreed that herb collecting would be classed as "work of national importance" and drug manufacturers were asked to supply lists of the plants they required.

The Women's Institutes, assisted by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, were recruited as principal collectors. To help them, members of the WI were given lectures with lantern slides on the identification, drying and storage of herbs.

The items they were asked to gather included belladonna leaves, dandelion root (for treating dyspepsia); foxglove leaves and seeds (to make digitalin, used in the treatment of heart disease); male fern rhizome (to treat worms); stinging nettles; sphagnum moss (soaked in garlic juice to make dressings); valerian root (an antispasmodic); coltsfoot (used in bronchial complaints); broom tops (for treating high blood pressure); agar-agar (a seaweed used in microbiology laboratory work); horse chestnuts (its glucose was made into Lucozade, widely prescribed by doctors as a glucose drink) and rosehips (to make syrup rich in Vitamin C for children).

In January 1942, in the News of the Month section of the WI magazine Home & Country, there was a report headed "Medical Herbs", which read:

One firm alone paid out £1,500 for herbs collected by WI members last year and would willingly have paid for 15 times the amount collected. Improved co-ordination this year should see that that urgent demand should be satisfied. So long as proper care is taken in picking, so that the source of supply is maintained, valuable drugs can be provided and some useful weeding done in one stroke!

In August 1942, the Isle of Wight Women's Institute gave notice of a public meeting it proposed to hold, inviting all organisations, including the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, to discuss how herbs could be collected locally. In October that year, the minutes noted: "Rosehips are urgently wanted, also horse chestnuts, for medicinal purposes."

Did you, or can you, help?

Do you have any memories of helping to collect herbs or rosehips during the war, or have you any of your own 'grandma's remedies' you would like to share? If so, please contact Cherry Chappell, Top Floor, Chelsea Reach, 79-89 Lots Road, London SW10 0RN, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Six of the best wartime cold cures

"During the lemonless, onionless wastes of last winter we knew for the first time how bleak could be the onset of a cold with neither of these comfortable remedies at hand."

Worcestershire WI recipe to cure a cold:
Boil a sprig of rosemary in half a pint of cider for 15 minutes and drink it at bedtime as hot as possible. It is advisable to drink it when in bed as it causes great perspiration.

For colds and inflammation:
Take a handful of elderflower and one of peppermint, put in a jug and pour over it 1 1/2 pints of boiling water. Let it steep for 30 minutes on the hob. Strain, then sweeten with black treacle or honey and drink hot in bed. The more you drink the sooner will the cure be effected.

Coltsfoot tea for colds:
2oz dried coltsfoot leaves. Boil in 3 gills of water for 15 minutes. Sweeten with candy or honey. A wine-glassful to be taken four times a day - half the quantity for children.

For a cold on the chest:
Half-a-pint of best vinegar, 1/4 oz cayenne, 1/2 oz saltpetre. Mix together in a bottle. Saturate a piece of flannel and rub on the chest.

Gloucestershire cold cure:
Into 1 pint of hot draught cider stir a good teaspoonful of ground ginger. Make a beeline for bed.

All taken from an article in Home & Country in 1942.
 
 
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