Product Description

Newly revised to include the latest developments in the field of herbal medicine, this classic bestseller presents a fascinating account of the ideas, personalities, advances, and vicissitudes that have shaped the course of medicine and pharmacology in the Western world. The author provides an eloquent and engaging account of the use of herbal medicine from prehistoric times to the present, reaffirming the incalculable value of medicinal plants in the healing arts. She presents a strong case for the cyclical emergence of alternative medicine at times (such as our own) when allopathic methods of treatment have lost their safety and efficacy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141727 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From the Author
Hellow fellow herbal medicational users!
The herbal medicines that are sweeping the nation are elequently decribed in my new book! enjoy!

Customer Reviews

Fascinating account of our history with medicinal plants
Anyone who has an interest in the development of medicine, philosophy of healing, or the politics of who is allowed to heal and why, cannot help but be uplifted and angered by this book.

Griggs is an excellent writer, and she has given a clear and sobering account of mankind's relationship with medicinal plants from pre-history. She looks at developments of a philosophy of healing, and charts the unfortunate history of conflicts between those who sought to empower their patients, and to demystify healing (often a female tradition) and those who sought to make a lot of money out of 'healing'. This latter group had a vested interest in making 'healing' something which only they could 'do' for someone else, and therefore the methods of healing had to be difficult, rare, costly - and often downright dangerous.

She contrasts the philosophy of herbalists such as Nicholas Culpeper, and his use of 'simples' with apothecaries who were using a whole range of far flung exotic substances, often engaged in 'heroic' practices such as bleeding, purging, cupping etc.

There is a sobering account of the outlawing of herbal treatment in this country - and of course many many parallels to be drawn between the earlier conflicts between 'wise women/'witch' herbal practitioners and 'educated' professionals with often some pretty newfangled, untried remedies - and the modern conflicts between herbal medicines and the big pharmaceutical giants.

Parallels between the use of mercury and arsenic in large (not homeopathic doses) in the 17th/18th century, which often killed the patient, and, for example, unopposed oestrogen being put on the market as the absolute to be desired for menopausal women - and 10-15 years down the line, the link between ORT and endometrial cancer, anyone? Thalidomide? Valium? etc. etc.

A lovely read
This book is an excellent overview of the history of herbal medicine. It is easy to read making it an enjoyable book to just read.