Before CHAPTER XIII. THE PIONEERS OF PHARMACY AND BOTANY—PHYSIC GARDENS.
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Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel)
“Strait to the ’pothecary’s shop I went, And in love powder all my money spent; Behap what will next Sunday after prayers When to the alehouse Lubberkin repairs, These flies into his mug I’ll throw, And soon the swain with fervent love shall glow”.
“Botanomancy,” Ferrand states, “which is done by the noise or crackling that kneeholme, box, or bay leaves make when they are crushed betwixt one’s hands or cast into the fire, was of old in use among the pagans, who were wont to bruise poppy flowers betwixt their hands, and by this means thinking to know their loves.”
A CHARME OR AN ALLAY FOR LOVE. “If so be a toad be laid In a sheepskin newly flaid, And that ty’d to man ’twill sever Him and his affections ever.”—Herrick’s Hesperides.
The winged ant was another favourite ingredient in love philtres, and was first used by Rhazes, who prepared the winged ant in the form of tincture by maceration in alcohol. This tincture, dropped in the homœopathic manner into wine or mixed with food, was supposed to have a wonderful action in producing symptoms of the tender passion in the coldest hearts. The winged ants alone were used in this preparation, which enjoyed a long reputation, and was subsequently known as “Hoffmann’s Water of Magnanimity,” and largely used in the seventeenth century as an aphrodisiac.