ct for which it should be employed." Southey
says,[80] "The signatures [were] the books out of which the ancients
first learned the virtues of herbs--Nature having stamped on divers of
them legible characters to discover their uses." Some opined that the
external marks were impressed by planetary influences, hence their
connection with talismans; others simply reasoned it out that the
Almighty must have placed a sign on the various means which he had
provided for curing diseases.

Color and shape were the two principal factors in interpreting the
signatures. White was regarded as cold and red as hot, hence cold and
hot qualities were attributed to different medicines of these colors
respectively. Serious errors in practice resulted from this opinion.
Red flowers were given for disorders of the sanguiferous system; the
petals of the red rose, especially, bear the "signature" of the blood,
and blood-root, on account of its red juice, was much prescribed for
the blood. Celandine, having yellow juice, the yellow drug, turmeric,
the roots of rhubarb, the flowers of saffron, and other yellow
substances were given in jaundice; red flannel, looking like blood,
cures blood taints, and therefore rheumatism, even to this day,
although many do not know why _red_ flannel is so efficacious.

Lungwort, whose leaves bear a fancied resemblance to the surface of
the lungs, was considered good for pulmonary complaints, and
liverwort, having a leaf like the liver, cured liver diseases.
Eye-bright was a famous application for eye diseases, because its
flowers somewhat resemble the pupil of the eye; bugloss, resembling a
snake's head, was valuable for snake bite; and the peony, when in bud,
being something like a man's head, was "very available against the
falling sickness." Walnuts were considered to be the perfect signature
of the head, the shell represented the bony skull, the irregularities
of the kernel the convolutions of the two hemispheres of the brain,
and the husk the scalp. The husk was therefore used for scalp
wounds, the inner peel for disorders of the meninges, and the
kernel was beneficial for the brain and tended to resist poisons.
Lilies-of-the-valley were used for the cure of apoplexy, the signature
reasoning being, as Coles says, "for as that disease is caused by the
drooping of humors into the principal ventrices of the brain, so the
flowers of this lily, hanging on the plants as if they were drops, are
of wonderful use