Heal Thyself: Nicholas Culpeper and the Seventeenth-Century Struggle to Bring Medicine to the People

by Benjamin Woolley

The first full biography of Nicholas Culpeper, the English seventeenth-century pioneer of herbal medicine whose actions and beliefs revolutionized medicine and medical practice In the mid-seventeenth century, England was visited by the four horsemen of the apocalypse: a civil war that saw levels of slaughter not matched until the Somme; famine in a succession of failed harvests that reduced peasants to "anatomies"; epidemics to rival the Black Death; and infant mortality rates that emptied crowded households of their children. In the midst of these terrible times came Nicholas Culpeper's Herbal -- one of the most popular and enduring books ever published. Culpeper was a virtual outcast from birth. Rebelling against a tyrannical grandfather and the prospect of a life in the Church, he abandoned his university education after a doomed attempt at elopement. Disinherited, he went to London, Milton's "city of refuge, the mansion house of liberty." There he was to find his vocation as an herbalist -- and as a revolutionary. London's medical regime was then in the grip of the College of Physicians, a powerful body personified in the "immortal" William Harvey, anatomist, royal physician and discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Working in the underground world of religious sects, secret printing presses and unlicensed apothecary shops, Culpeper challenged this stronghold at the time it was reaching the very pinnacle of its power -- and in the process became part of the revolution that toppled a monarchy. In a spellbinding narrative of impulse, romance and heroism, Benjamin Woolley vividly re-creates these momentous struggles and the roots of today's hopes and fears about the power of medical science, professional institutions and government. Heal Thyself tells the story of a medical rebel who took on the authorities and paid the price.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, History Of Science, British Literature

416 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[else fine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Culpeper's time, medicine was controlled by a learned elite, who prescribed complicated and dangerous compounds whose precise formulas were kept a closely guarded secret. As they relied heavily on exotic and sometimes toxic herbs as well as heavy metals, the cures were often as lethal as the diseases they purported to cure. These 'cures' weren't cheap, either. Here we get the story of Nicholas Culpeper, dreamer and rebel, who faced the wrath of the establishment by revealing the secret recipes of the pharmacists. He came under further fire when he then produced his own book of herbal cures, aimed at the common man, and written - shockingly - in plain English. His Herbal drew heavily on folk medicine and old wives' lore, and focused exclusively on native, easily identified plants - putting medicine, or at least self-care, back into the hands of the people.

Though I found Woolley's writing style a little off-putting, this is a fascinating story anyway, with some alarming and enlightening parallels to our own lives and to 20th century medical culture.

[Aaron Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book on a whole is very interesting but misleading. While claiming to be a biography on Nicholas Culpeper it seemed to me to be more a biography of William Harvey. The author admits in the beginning that there is very little information on Culpeper so the book is loaded with perhaps's, maybe's, and likely's. The first chapter starts off with childhood and then touches on Culpepers life occasionally in the many following chapters only truly focusing on him in the last chapters where more information is easier to get from his own publications. The book mainly focuses on a whirlwind of events centering around the English Civil War and the College of Physicians. Though I like having the history in a biography to place a person within their period the history shouldn't take over the biography like it has here. So if one goes into this book with eyes wide open and reads it more as a commentary on the medical and social challenges and changes which came about during this period you will be far happier.

[Evie Maiolo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially excited to read this book, I found it took me a very long time to get through it. It was not what I was expecting. Although it is titled after Culpeper, more than 75% of the book is focused on London's struggles at the time of the Civil War, and the part that religion and government played in the regulation of the Medical establishment of that time.

The book has an amazing amount of research and historical detail - it is well referenced and indexed, with a huge bibliography provided by the author. It is plain to see that this was a painstaking project to collate. This does, however, produce a rather dry read full of details of the politics of the seventeenth century.

[Robert McCaffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This will be of interest to historians of herbalism (and the politics of western medicine), and especially herbalism in the English tradition. It is not a guide or pharmacopeia of herbal medicine, but for the serious student of the western tradition, it may help to sort out which herbs have a long history of use and which were dubious latecomers introduced when profit and cheap substitutions were the motive. I came away with a sense that the Italian herbal tradition was less tainted.

[Nyx Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like others have noted, it's really not a book about Nicholas Culpeper - he's a very loose theme tying together a discussion of social, political, and medical history over across the 16th and 17th centuries (with William Harvey in the starring role).

That said, it's a quite thorough and well-researched book on that subject, and I do feel like it's helpful in understanding the context in which Culpeper's Herbal came about, and a little of why its legacy has been so lasting.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly fascinating topic, of which I knew nothing. Relevant to anyone with a remote interest in the early modern period and societal histories. Well written and sufficiently detailed, one of the first books in a while to have awakened my interests. The images of publications discussed throughout and chapter layouts made this book even more of a joy to read. Truly unique and engaging!

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Echoing other reviews, the title of this book is misleading, it is a story about William Harvey and Nicholas Culpeper, indeed the author says their story” in the epilogue.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this book, as an early modernist. I don’t know if it will be of much interest to those who are not into seventeenth century history with all the civil war information.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book I really loved! Interesting, informative and my favourite period of scientific exploration!

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A factual account of the application of medicine 17th century Britain. The life and pioneering work of Nicholas Culpeper is described with lots of other details and historical developments added in. The tangential developments are often more than just subplots and take over entire chapters. Well written and well researched.
Bought from charity shop.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicholas Culpeper is a fascinating man, and worthy of reading about if you have any interest in the history of medicine, and you will learn a substantial amount about Civil War London in the process of reading this book. Like Woolley perhaps, I hesitate to repeat what other reviewers have said-such as the seemingly endless amount of information about William Harvey. The author set the medical historian's darling, Harvey, up against a man often dismissed as a quack, Culpeper. While it might indicate the papaucity of information about Culpeper, I think really that Woolley did not want to repeat the scorn of previous biographers as he respected Culpeper. He corrects erroneous scholarship which involves The English Physitian with a more spurious and astrological work by Culpeper. Just to tease out the gist of his respect is that Culpeper was raised in very testy times and he himself for a testy sort of fellow. What he accomplished was taking the College of Physician's Dispensatory, a sort of mandate to the Apothecaries of London, out of Latin, which most of the Apothecaries could not read. He also corrected some of the errors therein, and made a case for local plants to keep costs at a minimum. The Apothecaries served all of London, and prior to the College's control, they often served as a doctor for the poor who relied upon them to prescribe without the horrific cost of a doctor. Culpeper's herbal made it possible for them use recipes accurately but also put a substantial amount of power in the hands of the literate poor, and the majority of men in London could read. The book was also very popular in America, where the Leveller sympathies ran in congress with the Puritan perspective. I wish Woolley had told us more about the colonial experience that he explores in his other book about Jamestown, but this isn't the case. I am adding alchemy to my list of descriptors, not because Culpeper was much of an alchemist (more of an astrologer) but because his widow marketed Arum Potabile after his death, literally cashing in on her husband's reputation. I think the real key to reading Woolley's books at least for me is to practice the Alpha Omega technique suggested to students, read the first chapter and then the conclusion before dipping into the middle of the book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting, although it kind of dragged in places. It's about Nicholas Culpepper and his efforts to empower people in regards to their own health care. At the time apothecaries(pharmacists) used a text written by the college of physicians that was in Latin. Most apothecaries couldn't read Latin and even if they could they would see that the text was full of ridiculous errors. Culpepper not only translated the book into the vernacular, but added comments on how the formulas were to be used, which enraged the physicians because of this blow to their control over everyone. Culpepper also disagreed with the use of exotic ingredients and so many excrements and parts of animals in medicine formulas. He believed in using natural ingredients that are indigenous to the area. He also believed that if people practiced proper hygiene and lived in a clean environment it would greatly improve their health (a pretty revolutionary idea for London in the 1600's). I think that Culpepper was a little known hero to medicine, who instead of bleeding his patients and giving them emetics approached things in a more reasonable manner. By giving the people information he had an enormous impact on medicine. He said "Our greatest skill lies in the infusion of hopes to induce confidence and peace of mind".
Great book, although the parts about the civil war going on at the time were too detailed and dry.

[Kenneth Davison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a curious and insightful book into the history of medicine. It was intriguing to see what the western world clung to for so many centuries without having scientific proof. And also sad how politics has been more of a curse to evolution than a blessing.

Again, Benjamin Woolley may be my favorite historical writer. I will always recommend his works to anyone seeking for unique insight into anything.

[Phillip · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is so little information available about Nicholas Culpeper that the book was not very good. The author would stretch the few things known about his subject by writing about those things in general but not about Culpeper himself.

It is a shame but I don't recommend this book at all.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great premise for a book. Unfortunately, the author goes off on many tangents related to war and politics rather than the history of medicine. This results in sections of factual narrative where the author's interpretation is lacking. The strongest sections were the introduction and conclusion.

[Clive Bevitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a Mish mash at times, trying to decide if it is a history of Culpeper or the civil war.