![]() The application of a strong decoction of Spearmint is said to cure chapped hands. Mint ottos have more power than any other aromatic to overcome the smell of tobacco. In the fourteenth century, mint was used for whitening the teeth, and its distilled oil is still used to flavour tooth-pastes, etc., and in America, especially, to flavour confectionery, chewing gums, and also to perfume soap. Rose leaves and mint, heated and applied outwardly cause rest and sleep.' 'Being smelled into,' he says, 'it is comfortable for the head and memory, and a decoction when used as a gargle, cures the mouth and gums, when sore.' Again, 'Garden Mint is most useful to wash children's heads when the latter are inclined to sores, and Wild Mint, mixed with vinegar is an excellent wash to get rid of scurf. They lay it on the stinging of wasps and bees with good success.'Ĭulpepper gives nearly forty distinct maladies for which mint is 'singularly good.' It is applied with salt to the bitings of mad dogs. ![]() 'It is good against watering eies and all manner of breakings out on the head and sores. ![]() In Athens where every part of the body was perfumed with a different scent mint was specially designated to the arms. The Ancients used mint to scent their bath water and as a restorative, as we use smelling salts to-day. It is much used either outwardly applied or inwardly drunk to strengthen and comfort weak stomackes.' ![]() 'Mintes are sometimes used in Baths with Balm and other herbs as a help to comfort and strengthen the nerves and sinews. Parkinson, in his Garden of Pleasure, mentions 'divers sorts of mintes both of the garden and wilde, of the woods, mountain and standing pools or waters' and says: It has, in fact, been so universally esteemed, that it is to be found wild in nearly all the countries to which civilization has extended, and in America for 200 years it has been known as an escape from gardens, growing in moist soils and proving sometimes troublesome as a weed. 'the smelle rejoiceth the heart of man, for which cause they used to strew it in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure and repose, where feasts and banquets are made.' Turner states in his Herball (1568) that the garden mint of his time was also called 'Spere Mynte.' Gerard, in further praise of the herb, tells us that: Chaucer refers to 'a little path of mintes full and fenill greene. Mint is mentioned in all early mediaeval lists of plants it was very early grown in English gardens, and was certainly cultivated in the Convent gardens of the ninth century. Many other references to it in old writings - among them, that of the payment by the Pharisees of tithes of Mint, Anise and Cumin - prove that the herb has been highly esteemed for many centuries. 'It will not suffer milk to cruddle in the stomach, and therefore it is put in milk that is drunke, lest those that drinke thereof should be strangled.' The Ancients believed that mint would prevent the coagulation of milk and its acid fermentation. It was in great request by the Romans, and Pliny according to Gerard says of it: 'The smell of Mint does stir up the minde and the taste to a greedy desire of meate.' Ovid represents the hospitable Baucis and Philemon scouring their board with green mint before laying upon it the food intended for their divine guests. This common garden mint is not a native of these islands, though growing freely in every garden, but is originally a native of the Mediterranean region, and was introduced into Britain by the Romans, being largely cultivated not only by them, but also by the other Mediterranean nations. Preparations and Dosages -Synonyms-Garden Mint.The Chemical Oyl.' He says 'the Mints have a biting, aromatick bitterish Sapor with a strong fragrant Smell abounding with a pungent Volatile Salt and a Subtil Sulphur which destroyeth Acids, and herein doth lodge the Causation of such medicinal Virtues in this Herb and others of the like Nature.'Īll the Mints yield fragrant oils by distillation. 'the young Botanists and Herb Women belonging to Apothecarys' shops. Westmacott, the author of a work on plants published in 1694, mentioning the different kinds of mint, states that they are well known to: The various species of mint have much in common and have all been held in high medical repute. pulegium), the first being the one ordinarily used for cooking. There are three chief species of mint in cultivation and general use: Spearmint ( Mentha viridis), Peppermint ( M.
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