From Magic to Microscope
Section 03
Elements behind
the Signatures
The Signature of Nose
Does the mint plant look like a nose in any way? Sixteenth-century physician Oswald Croll thought that the leaves of water mint had the shape of a nose – but more importantly, it was the strong smell of mint that had medicinal effect on the nose.
‘The Leaf of Water-Mentastrum, hath the form of the Nose; it is that Herb, which hath close rough leaves, and bares a reddish Flower inclining to white. Its extract is a specifick in lost smell’.
‘The Leaf of Water-Mentastrum, hath the form of the Nose; it is that Herb, which hath close rough leaves, and bares a reddish Flower inclining to white. Its extract is a specifick in lost smell’.
— Oswald Croll, Treatise of Signatures of Internal things, 1669[1609].
Image of Water Mint, Public Domain
Salt, Sulphur and Mercury
Salt, sulphur and mercury — for early modern chymical physicians, these are the three primary elements that constitute all natural beings in the world. In plants, they are present in every part of a plant and distributed differently across various species. Through chymical operations, the primary elements can be extracted from plants in the form of oil, ash or water for medicinal purposes. The combination of these primary elements determine the colour, smell and taste of different plants and their different parts.
Title page from Oswald Croll, Basilica chymica, oder, Alchymistisch königlich Kleÿnod...beneben angehengtem seinem newen Tractat von den innerlichen Signaturn oder Zeichen der Dinge (Frankfurt: 1629). Science History Institute, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Bitterness as a Signature
Chymical theories inspired physicians to find signatures of herbs not only through their visible qualities like shape and colour, but also through their taste and smell. Johann Gudrio von Tours, the chief apothecary in Stuttgart, published a treatise on the signatures of herbs in mid-seventeenth century. He argued that sweet taste, burning taste, sour taste, bitter taste and all kinds of taste were signatures that suggest the chymical components of the plants. Knowing the chymical elements inside the plants, one could find out their medicinal effects.
Anonymous (Johann Gudrio von Tours), Anatomia et physiognomia simplicium, das ist: Zwenn Tractat von der Signatura aller Erdgewächsen (Nuremberg, 1647).
For example, plants with bitter taste have a ‘natural commonality’ with the gallbladder because they have a nitro salt inside them, which is the same salt that made the gall bitter. This meant that bitter plants function in the same way as gall, and can purge excrements from the inner organs. Meanwhile, Gudrio pointed out that this bitter nitro salt is also the source of nutrition in the earth, which has the power to resist decay, worms and many kinds of diseases. Myrrh, speedwell, thistles, these were all bitter plants with gall-like effects.
