ENDNOTES
1. This doctrine, known as “the Doctrine of Signatures,” is found in early Greek and Roman writings although the first to document it and ascribe to it a name was Johannis Baptista della Porta in his book Phytognomica. This belief was later described in an English herbal by Nicolas Culpeper in which it was referred to using today’s accepted term “the Doctrine of Signatures”.
2. A review of standard dictionaries and encyclopedias reveals that several other Cacti were used for some form of shamanism including Ariocarpus, Epithelantha, Pachycereus, Selenicereus and Trichocereus.
3. Interestingly, many of these plants along with Hops Vine (Humulus lupulus), Serpent Vine, (Aristolochia sp.), Poppy, Galbulimima, Mulberry (Morus sp.), and Upas tree (Antiaris sp.), are all closely related and appear at the base of the Dicotyledonae (the Witchhazel-Magnolia-Buttercup complex). Their primitive evolutionary basis quickly led to their success as they developed these toxins from simple amino acids, alkyl amines, and in some cases sesquiterpenes.
4. James William Herrick. Iroquois Medical Botany. (Ann Arbor: University Micofilm International, 1977) p. 306; Daniel E. Moerman. Medicinal Plants of Native America. Research Reports in Ethnobotany. Contributions 2. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Technical Reports, No. 19. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1986) vol. 1, p. 99.
5. See Dr. Christian Ratsch. The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants. (Bridport, Great Britain: Prism Press, 1992) p. 96-99.
6. For more on mythical plants see William A. Emboden’s Bizarre Plants (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1974)
7. Op cit. Ratsch.
8. Homer. Oddessy. iv, 221.
9. Op cit. Lise Manniche.
10. From S.H. Snyder. “What we have forgotten about pot.” New York Times Magazine, Dec. 30, 1970. pp. 27, 121, 124, 130.
11. Jane M. Renfrew. Paleoethnobotany. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973) p. 163.
12. Richard Banckes (Printer). An Herbal. 1525. Edited & transcribed into modern English with an Introduction. (S.V. Larkey & T. Pyles, Ed., New York, 1941) p. 21.
13. John Gerard. The Herbal or General History of Plants. The Complete 1633 Edition as Revised and Enlarged by Thomas Johnson. (Originally published by Adam Islip Joyce Norton and Richard Whitakers, London, 1633. Republished by Dover Publications, Inc., Toronto, 1975) p. 708-712; Op cit. Culpeper.
14. Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. (Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 1980.) XX. xcvii.
15. Ibid. XXIV ,xcix. See cii (p. 114-115.)
16. Javed Ahmad, A.H. Farooqui and T.O. Siddiqui. “Zakariya Al-Razi’s Treatise on Botanical, Animal and Mineral Drugs for Cancer.” Hamdard Medicus Quarterly Journal of Science and Medicine Vol. XXVIII, No. 3. pp. 76-93.
17. Quoted from Dan Bensky, Andrew Gamble and Ted Kaptchuk (Compilers and translators). Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica. Rev. ed. (Seattle: Eastland Press, Inc., 1993). p. 3.
18. Akira Tsumura. Kampo. How the Japanese Updated Traditional Herbal Medicine. (New York: Japan Publications, Inc., 1991).
19. For example, of the nine Incunabula Herbals of Germany dated 1400-1500 (representing over 300 medicines) none contained Cannabis, in spite of Germany’s long history prior to these dates of growing hemp for use as a food and/or fiber producer. See: Frank J. Anderson. The Illustrated Bartsch. German Book Illustration through 1500. Herbals through 1500. (New York: Abaris Books, 1984)
20. Ibid. John Gerard. p. 708-710.
21. John Parkinson. Paradisi in Sole: Paradisus Terrestris, (A Paradise of Flowers,) Originally printed in 1629, (London,) n.p. (Reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1976).
22. John Parkinson. Theatrum Botanicum, London, 1640.
23. Nicolas Culpeper. The Complete Herbal and Physician Enlarged. (London: Richard Evans, 1814) p. 91.
24. Ibid. Culpeper. p. 91. Note: Other possibilities for “Hemp” exist including those mentioned by Gerard, in particular the Water Hemp (Acnidia sp.).
25. Ibid. Culpeper.
26. Ibid. Culpeper.
27. William Lewis. The New Dispensatory… (London: J. Nourse, 1770). p. 114-115.
28. In severe or chronic cases of tuberculosis, patients were often in a very bad state of health in which their lung tissue actually decayed or dissolved to form a thick black fluid that was then spit up along with pus and blood; thus the name given to this syndrome–“Decay.”
29. Dr. Cornelius Osborn. August 28, 1768 To James Osborn For his Prusiel in Physick a Short Scetch on Disorders Insedent to (the) human body… (Manuscript owned by the Local History Collection of Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie, New York.) (Quoted from “Manuscript with Interpretation” prepared by this author, 1991-1993, p. 16 of Manuscript/Interpretation).
30. Op cit. Culpeper.
31. From W.B. O’Shaugnessy “On the preparation of the Indian Hemp, or gunja. Trans. Medicine m. Physiological Society, Bengal. 1838-1840. pp. 71-102.; 1842, pp. 421-461.
32. Finley Ellingwood, M.D., Editor. “Cannabis Indica” in “Direct Therapeutics.” p. 9-10. Annuals of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery. (Chicago, 1891).
33. Finley Ellingwood, M.D., Editor. “Cannabis Indica” in “Direct Therapeutics.” p. 10. Annuals of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery. (Chicago, 1892).
34. Phelps O. Brown. The Complete Herbalist; or, The People Their Own Physicians. (Author, 1875.) Reprinted by Newcastle Publishing, North Hollywood, 1993.) p. 60.
35. Phelps O. Brown. The Complete Herbalist; or, The People Their Own Physicians. (Author, 1875.) Reprinted by Newcastle Publishing, North Hollywood, 1993.) p. 470.
36. Harold N. Moldenke and Lama L. Moldenke. Plants of the Bible. (Originally published by Waltham, Chronica Botanica Company, 1952. (Currently published by Dover Publicatons, Inc., New York, 1982.)
37. Walter B. Kilner. A Compendium of Modern Pharmacy and Druggists’ Formulary. 6ed. (Springfield: H.W. Rokker, Publishers, 1889), p. 577.
38. Ibid. pp. 133, 578, 290.
39. From an advertisement in Eclectic Medical Journal, 1894.
40. Op cit. Kilner. p. 581.
41. See “Use of Cannabis sativa.” Transactions of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Vol. 10, (1860) p. 105.
42. See “Cannabis indica.” Transactions of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Vol. 11, (1862) p. 85.
43. Most of these citations came from Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Index 1851-1902. Proceedings for 1861 were not published. For volume number subtract ’50’ (years) from the year of publication for 1851-1860, thereafter subtract ’51’.
44. Preobraschenski. Correspondenzen, Sokoloff entry, in Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, Vol. 9 (1876), p. 1024.
45. R. Darnley Gibbs. Chemotaxonomy of Flowering Plants. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press) Vol. I. p. 287 and 299 (references made to a Pyridine alkaloid,) 290, (reference to the amine Trigonelline.)
46. Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association Vol. 24 (1881). Absence of nicotia in Cannabis.
47. Edward P. Claus, Ph.D. Pharmacognosy, 4ed. (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1961). p. 264-266.
48. Op cit. Walter B. Kilner. p. 253.
49. United States Pharmacopoiea, Fifth Revision. (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 1900), pp. 88, 134, 171, and 459, respectively.
Brian Altonen, MPH, MS 