Ginseng

It's often imagined that the use of the root plant Ginseng in 'complementary' or 'alternative' medicine is a relatively new phenomenon, but in fact the trade and medical use of Ginseng has a long history.

There are several claims surrounding the discovery and trade of Ginseng in North America. One source states that it was found growing in Quebec in 1716 by Father Lofitau, a Jesuit Missionary to the Iroquois Indians. Another source claims that American settlers discovered Ginseng in New England in the mid 1700’s. It is known for certain however that by the late 1700's the trade in the shipment of Ginseng from America to China made considerable profit.

Perhaps because the fleshy Ginseng root is shaped resembling the body and limbs of a human, all manner of medical and 'all-healing' properties have been attributed to it. It is scientifically recognised for its anti-carcinogenic and antioxidant properties. Widely cultivated in China for centuries Ginseng is used in Chinese medicine as a muscle relaxant. As early as the 17th century one English doctor noted of Ginseng -

Deare Sonne, - You did well to observe Ginseng. All exotick rarities, especially of the east, the East India trade having encreased, are brought in England, and the profitt made therof. Of this plant Kircherus writeth in his China illustrata, pag. 178, cap. "De Exoticis China plantis".

This extremely early reference to Ginseng, highlights the deep similarity of mind shared by both seventeenth century scholars. Sir Thomas Browne established a European reputation for himself as a scientist, botanist, archaeologist and commentator upon comparative religion with the publication of his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-76); a work which also frequently cites, 'that eminent example of industrious Learning, Kircherus'.

The various scholastic commendations applied to Kircher as "the last Renaissance man" (Edward W. Schmidt), "a giant among seventeenth-century scholars", "one of the last thinkers who could rightfully claim all knowledge as his domain" (Alan Cutler); and perhaps most aptly of all, 'the supreme representative of Hermeticism within post-Reformation Europe' are equally applicable of Kircher's follower, Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich. As to whether either Kircher or Browne actually ever acquired or ingested Ginseng, it is not known, perhaps not!

Candy

These days I often purchase books from Charity shops enjoying finding random literature to read. Terry Southern's 'Candy' (1958) was one such book. Hailed as the 'first and best of our new wave of American writers, defining the cutting edge of black comedy' (Joseph Heller), Terry Southern's 'Candy' is a parody of Voltaire's 'Candide'. It's a satirical story of a big-hearted blonde who finds her affectionate nature invariably exploited. Candy's adventure to find the meaning of life discovers that American society is obsessed with sex and that every man she so innocently encounters only wants to have sex with her!

Well-written snappy dialogue, quite funny and playful in its depiction of sex, it's hard to believe that in England a book as tame as D.H.Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' with its occasional vulgar word was the test-case for the Obscene publications Act of 1959, while in America, 'Candy' a non-stop erotic comedy which borders on pornography at times, could be published with little public concern. It does get a little tiresome to read the phrase 'clitoral stimulation' over and over again, as if a naughty school-boy is writing, but then for 1958 that is quite a daring phrase. Ten years after its publication a film of the book was made which quite frankly must be one of the biggest turkey's of all time. Luckily a friend's phone-call interrupted my viewing a hammy performance by Richard Burton, a mere 17 minutes into the film. I simply could not return to watch further cringe-worthy performances by the likes of Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr.

Early in his career Southern seems to have met and been revered by nearly everyone associated with the 'Counter-Culture'. In Greenwich Village he associated with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Living in Paris he heard musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis perform. He also met leading French intellectuals Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. In London he befriended the painter Francis Bacon, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, appearing on the cover of 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club' album in sun-glasses.

Interspersed in Terry Southern's life (1924-1995) one of promise, disappointment, unsuccessful projects and an increasing reliance upon amphetamine pills, are several note-worthy screen-plays for 'cult' films. His career as a screen-writer developed when the maverick actor Peter Seller's gave a copy of his favourite book, Southern's 'The Magic Christian' to the film-director Stanley Kubrick to read. Terry Southern's screen-plays includes the films Doctor Strangelove (1964), Barbarella (1967), Easy Rider (1968) and the film of his novel 'The Magic Christian' (1969) which like Candy was written ten years earlier.

'The Magic Christian' is the vehicle for some of Southern's blackest humour in which he demonstrates that people will do anything, absolutely anything to acquire money. The writer Hunter S. Thompson said of the novel , 'I started reading The Magic Christian and I thought I was going to go insane... it was an incredible influence on me.' The film of 'The Magic Christian' (1969) is not a complete turkey but episodic and uneven with many cameo appearances including Roman Polanski, Yul Brynner, Raquel Welch as well as British comedians, John Cleese, Grahame Chapman and Spike Milligan.

Terry Southern's life, like so many artists associated with the 'Counter-culture' was cut short prematurely through his heavy drinking and drug-abuse. His black humour and sly surreal perspective upon American society and its values has many imitators but he was one of the first American 'counter-culture' writers to gain fame and notoriety. His influence endures.

Peruvian Bark

Because throughout history to the present-day malaria is a world-wide killer of thousand of lives, the discovery of Peruvian Bark is a well-documented chapter in the history of medicine. The ability of bark from the cinchona tree to combat the symptoms of malaria, its eventual synthesizing as Quinine, and its subsequent world-wide usage is a vast subject. However one small footnote on Peruvian Bark in the history of British medicine may yet be added.

The discovery of Peruvian Bark's medicinal properties is attributed to several people. The Jesuit priest Agostino Salumbrino (1561–1642) who had trained as an apothecary is credited as among the first to observe that the indigenous Quechua or Inca people used a diffusion of the bark from the cinchona tree to alleviate the symptoms of malaria. Indeed the original Inca word for the cinchona tree bark, 'quina' or 'quina-quina' roughly translates as 'bark of bark' or 'holy bark'. It's also recorded that in 1638, the countess of Chinchon, the wife of a Peruvian viceroy used the bark of the cinchona tree to relieve the fever-induced shivering symptoms experienced during the onset of malaria to remedy a 'miracle cure'.

While its effect in treating malaria and also malaria-induced shivering was unrelated to its effect to control shivering from rigors, Peruvian Bark was nevertheless hailed as a successful medicine for malaria. Modern science has detected that the bark of the cinchona tree contains a variety of alkaloids, including the anti-malarial compound quinine which interferes with the reproduction of malaria-causing protozoa, and also quinidine, an antiarrhythmic.

It was the Renaissance maverick alchemist Paracelsus who first urged the physician to examine and analyse substances from the vegetable, mineral and animal kingdoms in search of new medicines. By the seventeenth century with the colonization of South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, as well as migration to North America, an abundance of published reports upon the flora and fauna of the American continent became available to the physician. Foremost amongst such reports were those of the Jesuit missionaries who collected facts on all manner of botanical, geographical and social phenomena they encountered in their imperial-orientated colonization; including the discovery of the Cinchona tree's medical properties. For these reasons Peruvian Bark was also widely-known as 'Jesuits' powder'.

In 1658 the English weekly Mercurius Politicus announced that: 'The excellent powder known by the name of 'Jesuits' powder' may be obtained from several London chemists'. However Peruvian Bark did not achieve full official approval and was not entered into the British Pharmacopoeia until 1677. This was mostly due to religious prejudices. Because it was known as 'Jesuits' Powder' it was associated with Catholicism. Even seemingly well-educated persons such as King Charles II, who took an active interest in the scientific inquiries of his age, sanctioning approval for the Royal Society was wary of 'Jesuit's Powder' because of its presumed association with Catholicism. However when suffering from malarial fever Charles II consulted Mr Robert Talbor, who had found fame for his miraculous cure of malaria. Talbor was obliged to give the King the bitter bark decoction in great secrecy. The treatment completely relieved the King from malarial fever and he rewarded Talbor with a life-times membership of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians.

Incidentally its alleged that Oliver Cromwell died of Malaria, refusing Jesuit's Powder as a remedy, simply because of his hatred of Catholicism! But as autopsy's were inaccurate in the seventeenth century, this allegation may simply be nothing more than Royalist propaganda enhancing the virtue of 'progressive monarchy' in contrast to the anti-monarchist Republic which was established by Cromwell.

Many physicians throughout England in the seventeenth century were interested in reports of the healing qualities of Peruvian Bark, in particular those who lived in regions prone to the spread of malaria; East Anglia with its many marshes, broads and Fens; geographic areas whose large tracts of low-laying land and many slow-flowing or stagnant stretches of water were ideal for the spread of the insect-borne virus. In correspondence dated 1667 to his youngest son, Dr. Thomas Browne of Norwich requested-

When you are at Cales, see if you can get a box of the Jesuits' powder at easier rate, and bring it in the bark, not in powder.

Its suggestive from this letter in his request to his son to obtain Jesuits' powder from a Continental source and not from London, that Dr.Browne may have been wary  the thriving trade in Peruvian Bark could be vulnerable to dilution by apothecaries. Its also evident from his preference to obtain it from a continental source and insistence on  bark and not powder that he was well-familiar with Peruvian Bark's composition.

Incidentally, it was for the entertainment and education of his youngest son Thomas that Sir Thomas Browne penned the Latin work Nauchmachia, a descriptive account of a Sea-battle in antiquity. Tragically however, young Midshipman Thomas was listed as lost at sea, presumed dead shortly after receiving this letter, he was most probably a  fatality in the Anglo-Dutch naval-battle of Lowestoft in 1665.

But by far the most detailed document in British medical history of a physician's assessment of Peruvian Bark occurs in an undated and untitled note concerning the Cortex Peruvianus or Quinana Peruve by Dr.Browne.

I am not fearful of any bad effect from it nor have I observed any that I could clearly derive from that as a true cause: it doth not so much good as I could wish or others expect, but I can lay no harm unto its charge, and I have known it taken twenty times in the course of a quartan. In such agues, especially illegitimate ones, many have died though they have taken it, but far more who have not made use of it, and therefore what ever bad conclusions such agues have I cannot satisfy myself that they owe their evil unto such medicines, but rather unto inward tumours inflammations or atonie of parts contracted from the distemper.   Source: Brit. Mus. Sloane MS 1895

 

Because the above statement is undated with no addressee, there's no evidence for who, where or when Dr. Browne penned his assessment of Peruvian Bark. One would like to imagine that it was an assessment made for the benefit of King Charles II who had met and knighted Browne in 1671. It could theoretically have been surreptitiously passed onto Charles II via Browne's eldest son Edward who resided in London, had access to the Royal Court and was later President of the Royal College of Physicians. But it could as easily have been written for the benefit of any enquiring member of the gentry. In any case it demonstrates that not only was Dr. Browne well informed of the latest medical discoveries, even aware of excessive and 'illegitimate' usage of 'Jesuits' Powder', but was also able to independently assess such discoveries.

Flower of Chinchona pubescens

Pears

Ripening Pears first appear in late summer only to disappear early winter.

The current World recession has resulted in economic hardship and unemployment for many. However, the suffering engendered by natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake earlier this year, the floods in Pakistan and China in which millions of people face enormous challenges of survival are quite simply beyond the imagination and endurance of much of Western society. Such natural disasters firmly place mere economic hardship into perspective.

One wonders how many individuals in Western society who continue to enjoy a comfortable life-style could ever begin to cope with the suffering faced by those experiencing natural disaster. And yet our comfortable life-styles are often maintained by exploitation, inflicting great suffering upon innocent fellow humans, even if geographically remote, in the form of Warfare, military occupation of land and unfair trading conditions.

The Renaissance physician and alchemist Paracelsus possessed a deep insight into human nature. He was not only a radical doctor but also a theologian as profound as Luther; even though much of his writings remain untranslated from an obsolete Middle German dialect; nevertheless Paracelsus made important observations upon human nature worthy of contemplation.

The following quotation is exemplary of Biblical and alchemical notions of the trial of metals being likened to the testing of the human soul.

It is in extremis, things reveal their nature and become visible; then we can say: he is an upright man, a steadfast man, he manifests his inner being.....One man reveals more traits of loyalty and less of disloyalty; one man is to a large extent this, another man that. Therefore we should keep an eye on the outward characteristics which nature gives a man by shaping him in a certain way. For nature shapes the anatomy of a pear in such a way that the pear develops into a pear tree; and she creates a medlar's anatomy, in such a way that it develops into a medlar bush; and the same is true of silver and of gold. Nature also forges man, now a gold man, now a silver man, now a fig man, now a bean man.



Quotation from -Parcelsus Selected Writings ed. Jolande Jacobi Princeton Uni. Press 1951

The Kingdom of this World

I've just finished reading the El reino de este mundo, 'The Kingdom of this World' (1949) by Alejo Carpentier. Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) was a Cuban writer and musicologist who lived in Europe from 1928-38. He returned to Cuba in 1939 to marry but disliking its political atmosphere choose to live in Venezuela instead. However, when the Cuban revolution occurred in 1959 he returned to become Vice-President of the National Council of Culture, Professor of the History of Culture and eventually Director of the Cuban State publishing House.Carpentier's novella (112 pp.) is set in Haiti at the end of the eighteenth century. It describes the events in which African slaves fought French colonists for their freedom and human rights to establish a short-lived Black Republic. It's written from the perspective of the protagonist Ti Noel, a black slave who witnesses the events in Haiti first-hand.

Although Haiti achieved independence in 1804, the protagonist Ti Noel realizes that the newly-formed Republic is in some ways even worse than colonial rule, 'for the colonists... had at least been careful not to kill their slaves, for dead slaves were money out of their pockets'. Whereas in the new Black Republic the death of a slave is seen as an easily replaceable commodity, the high-birth rate ensuring a constant supply of new slaves. Thus as it ever was, the cry to defeat tyranny with freedom is replaced by the new ruling elite's justification of a new form of tyranny.

Alejo Carpentier's left-wing viewpoint on the human condition argues that-

...a man never knows for whom he suffers and hopes. He suffers and hopes and toils for people he will never know, and for who, in turn, will suffer and hope and toil for others who will not be happy either, for man always seeks a happiness far beyond that which is meted out to him. But man's greatness consists in the very fact of wanting to be better than what he is. In laying duties upon himself. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy. For this reason, bowed down by suffering and duties, beautiful in the midst of his misery, capable of loving in the face of afflictions and trials, man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in the Kingdom of This World.

Carpentier is credited with coining the term lo real maravilloso (roughly the "marvelous reality") in the prologue to 'The Kingdom of this World' and the novella is often cited as one of the very earliest examples of the genre of 'magic realism', in which reality and elements of fantasy are mixed to produce a cocktail of highly imaginative literature. Carpentier's familiarity with the Surrealist movement while living in Paris, his admiration of the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, his left-wing politics, interest in Voodoo and ethnicity, all amalgamate in 'The Kingdom of this World' to produce what is seen by many as one of the earliest examples of 'magical realism' writing.

The Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges is credited as one of the key innovators of 'magic realism' writing in which aspects of reality are blurred with magical elements. The Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel 'One hundred years of solitude' (1967) is also often cited as a seminal example of this genre. However, although 'magic realism' is frequently associated with the literature of South America, the human imagination transcends national boundaries.

Other novelists who have utilized elements of 'magic realism' in their writing include (and this inventory is far from inclusive) the Australian novelist Peter Carey's 'Illywhacker' (1985), Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' (1988), Patrick Suskind's 'Perfume' (1985), Gunther Grass' 'The Tin Drum'(1959) and not least, the supreme worlk of Russian magical realism, if not the 20th century, Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master Margarita' (1940).

But in fact the employment of 'magical' or 'fantastic' elements in modern Literature, in particular English Literature can be traced as far back as Jonathan Swift's' 'Gulliver's Travels' (1735). 'Fantastic' or fantasy elements pervade English literary works, especially literature loved by children and adults alike, including Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' (1865), and Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows' (1908) .

Personally, dare I propose it, one of the greatest of all 'magical realism' writings is by an author whom Jorge Borges was a great admirer of, Sir Thomas Browne's 'The Garden of Cyrus' (1658). As T. S. Eliot long ago realized, 'Mankind cannot bear very much reality'.