is a Devonshire cure for
Nettle-rash. Gerard says, "the Nettle is a good medicine for them
that cannot breathe unless they hold their necks upright: and being
eaten boiled with periwinkles it makes the body soluble."

The word Nettle is derived from _net_, meaning something spun, or
sewn; and it indicates the thread made from the hairs of the plant,
and formerly used among Scandinavian nations. This was likewise
employed by Scotch weavers in the seventeenth century. Westmacott,
the historian, says, "Scotch cloth is only the [384] housewifery
of the Nettle." And the poet Campbell writes in one of his
letters, "I have slept in Nettle sheets, and dined off a Nettle table
cloth: and I have heard my mother say she thought Nettle cloth
more durable than any other linen." Goldsmith has recorded the
"rubbing of a cock's heart with stinging Nettles to make it hatch
hen's eggs." Some think the word "Nettle" an alteration of the
Anglo-Saxon "Needl," with reference to the needle-like stings. Spun
silk is now made in England from "Ramie" the decorticated fibre of
Nettles after washing away the glutinous juice from under their
bark.

The seeds (_dioica_) contain a fine oil, and powerfully stimulate the
sexual functions.

In Russia, as a recent mode of treatment, _urtication_ is now
enthusiastically commended, that is, slapping, or pricking with a
bundle of fresh Nettle twigs for one or more minutes, once, or
several times in the day. It is a superlative method of cure because
harmless (neither irritating the kidneys nor disfiguring the skin),
cleanly, simple in application, rapid in its effects, and cheap, though
perhaps somewhat rude. For sciatica, for incipient wasting, for the
difficult breathing of some heart troubles (where such stimulation
along the backbone affords more prompt and complete relief than
any other treatment), for some coughs palsy, suppression of the
monthly flow in women, rheumatism, and for lack of muscular
energy, this urtication is said to be an invaluable resuscitating
measure which has been successfully resorted to by the peasantry of
Russia from time immemorial. It will sometimes produce a crop of
small harmless blisters.

The analysis of the fresh Nettle shows a presence of formic acid (the
irritating principle of the stinging hairs), with mucilage, salts,
ammonia, carbonic acid, and [385] water. A strong decoction of
Nettles drunk too freely by mistake has produced severe burning
over the whole b