Time for some dark festive history in today’s Whitworth Advent entry. Steph delves into the toxic history of hellebores, true and false, and discusses how they were used for medicinal purposes in the past.

Take a stroll around the perimeter of the gallery during the winter months and you’ll find different varieties of hellebore in bloom. Their bright flowers break up the browns of leafless trees and shrubs and the deep verdant displays of evergreens. Green hellebore and stinking hellebore are native to certain parts of Britain but other varieties have been introduced. Hellebore itself is an evergreen and will only start to flower in winter, with many varieties continuing to bloom into spring. Although some of the plants planted on gallery grounds are edible, such as our spearmint, hellebore is very much not; a member of the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family, one feature hellebore shares in common with many members of this family is that it is toxic. All hellebore varieties are toxic to some degree. They are not only toxic to humans but also to cats, dogs, rabbits and other animals.

So why plant something which is toxic? Our first reaction when discovering something can be toxic to humans is often a knee-jerk reaction. Serious cases of hellebore poisoning are actually quite rare now. It’s always good to take a step back and remind ourselves that not everything exists to be consumed by humans, nor does it have to exist solely to serve our needs and wants. Chowing down on hellebore may be ill-advised but we can still appreciate its beauty, which is why hellebore can be found around the gallery. Our gardens and other planted areas tend to contain various plants to keep an eye out for in each season- and from season to season they transform the gardens into different landscapes. It’s quite beautiful to watch and something that I have always found encourages me to stop, take note and better appreciate the changing of the seasons just that little bit more.

Even those plants we should not use to aid in our physical wellbeing can help us in other ways; through their beauty, which causes us to pause in a hectic world, they can have value for our mental wellbeing. People in centuries past also made a connection between hellebore and mental health but they ingested it in the false belief that what they believed to be potential benefits outweighed the very real risks. We have already covered the fact that hellebore is toxic to humans, so why consume it? Well, we can find the answer to this question in a theory which grew to influential on medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome, with it continuing to be influential on how illness was viewed and treated (particularly in Europe) throughout the medieval period and during the early modern period; the theory of the four humours.

The Theory of the Four Humours

Although the idea of the body containing humours is thought to pre-date the Greek physician Hippocrates (460 BCE- 370? BCE), he is usually credited as being the one to apply this theory to practical use in medicine. Hippocrates, as you have probably guessed, worked on a theory of four humours; these were believed to be substances contained within the body which, when out of balance (which might be caused by an excess of one humour), could cause illness. Exactly how many humours the body had would depend on who you asked during his lifetime but it was the theory of the four humours which eventually rose to prominence centuries later. For the purpose of this post, however, all you need to know is that it was the theory of four humors which eventually rose to prominence and those humours were; black bile, blood, phlegm and yellow bile. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? 

Humoral medicine placed an emphasis on the individual patient; if a person was ill, it was due to their own unique balance of humours being off kilter- with each individual having a naturally choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic or sanguine constitution/ temperament. Different humours were eventually associated with different temperaments and elements; phlegm was wet and cold and associated with water, blood was hot and wet and associated with air, yellow bile was hot and dry and associated with fire, black bile was dry and cold and associated with earth. The humours were thought by some to be produced within different organs, for example; according to Galen (129-216CE), blood was generated in the liver. Galen also linked the humours with different seasons. The humours would also eventually be linked to different planets.

Who was Galen? Born in Permagmum in what is now Turkey, Galen was the son of an architect. He first worked as a physician to gladiators and later served as a physician to various Roman emperors, starting with Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. Galen was deeply interested in anatomy but, as the dissection of human bodies was forbidden, he dissected animals such as Barbary apes, dogs, goats and pigs. Although some of these animals share some similarities with humans with regard to parts of their anatomy, mistakes were obviously made. His description of the uterus, for example, was famously based on a dog’s uterus. These mistakes would not be corrected for centuries. That’s not to say that Galen was terrible when it came to advancing knowledge of anatomy at all; he proved that the brain controlled the voice amongst other things- but he was hindered because he was unable to dissect human bodies. His work was very influential during his own lifetime and would continue to be so for many centuries.

Eventually, through advances in the knowledge of anatomy during the sixteenth century and beyond, aspects of Galenic medicine would be challenged by the likes of men such as Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564 CE) and William Harvey (1578-1657 CE). Their discoveries helped to correct some of the anatomical errors found in Galen’s works. Some, such as Paracelsus (1493-1541 CE), criticised the theory of the four humours directly. However, the theory would continue to have some influence over the way people perceived the body and illness even after people began to criticise it, as the two major courses of treatment which were associated with it continued to some extent into the nineteenth century.

The two main ways that one might attempt to resolve an imbalance in a patient’s humours were bleeding and purging. The idea was to rid the body of the humour it had an excess of and thus restore an individual’s humours to balance. It’s easy for us to scoff at the idea of people deliberately bleeding or purging a patient and potentially encouraging them to take something toxic for medicinal purposes. Yet there is something significant about the theory of the four humours to the history of medicine, other than its lengthy period of influence and the fact that it was wrong.

This is really an over simplification and we could discuss the merits of humoral medicine and the way it was used in conjunction with other approaches throughout the centuries for some time, in addition to how a continued emphasis on things like humoral medicine, miasma theory and ‘God did it’ may have hindered other ideas. Just look at Girolamo Fracastoro’s work regarding ‘seeds’ of disease in the sixteenth century; it is often described as precursor to germ theory but it did not become a dominant theory of the cause of disease. The main merit of the theory of the four humours was that it was theory which allowed for a logical explanation of illness and thus encouraged attempts to try treat illnesses in a logical manner. That is not to say that humoral medicine actually worked and that people didn’t turn to other explanations for illness too, we know that that they absolutely did- but, in a sense, it’s at least a step in the right direction.

Now, on to the historical applications of hellebore in medicine.

Too Much Black Bile? Take Some Hellebore

If you were paying attention to the ways in which people attempted to resolve an imbalance in the four humours, you’ll have probably guessed by now that hellebore was often employed to assist in purging the body. From at least the time of Ancient Greece well into the early modern period, hellebores were thought to be particularly helpful in cases of melancholy (a word which comes from the Greek term for ‘black bile’) and madness. ‘Black hellebore’, it seems, was thought to be particularly effective against black bile and thus melancholy. However, there appears to have been some confusion as to what people sometimes meant by the term ‘hellebore’ in the past- as we shall see later.

What was melancholy? In my experience, whenever the topic of melancholy is broached people are quick to say that melancholy = depression. It’s not completely wrong; the term ‘melancholy’ definitely covers what we would today refer to as depression. However, the term also likely encompasses a variety of other conditions or diagnoses one might read about today. For us, melancholy might be better understood as more of an umbrella term. Robert Burton, who was afflicted by melancholy himself, listed every kind of melancholy he could think of and the possible causes during the early seventeenth century. Today we might not necessarily categorise some of these forms of melancholy as depression but instead as other illnesses.

It’s hard to apply a modern diagnosis to someone who is long dead, especially in the case of mental illnesses. It’s worth pointing out that some suggestions made in the past to aid with such illnesses are very similar to what we would do today, such as encouraging someone afflicted by melancholy to talk to others about their troubles. But, as you have already seen, people in centuries past didn’t quite operate within the same medical framework we have today. They wouldn’t necessarily have always understood their illness in the same terms we have available to us today, nor would they have all of the same treatments. Antidepressants are a relatively recent development. Our own diagnoses are also subject to changes in terminology as science and our understanding of various conditions improves; ‘manic depression’, for instance, was replaced with the term ‘bipolar disorder’ in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980.

The Ancient World

One example from Classical antiquity of a plant referred to as a ‘hellebore’ being discussed specifically in the context of purging for medicinal purposes comes from Strabo (c. 64 BCE – after 21 CE), a Greek geographer and historian. Strabo told readers of his Geography where he had heard the best quality hellebore might be found but also that the plant was better prepared for use in purging elsewhere:

‘In front of Cirrha lies the fertile Crisaean Plain; for again one comes next in order to another city, Crisa, from which the Crisaean Gulf is named. Then to Anticyra, bearing the same name as the city on the Maliac Gulf near Oeta. And, in truth, they say that it is in the latter region that the hellebore of fine quality is produced, though that produced in the former is better prepared, and on this account many people resort thither to be purged and cured; for in the Phocian Anticyra, they add, grows a sesame-like medicinal plant with which the Oetaean hellebore is prepared.‘ – Strabo, Geography, Book 9, Chapter 3 from H. L. Jones (editor), The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Accessed online at Gregory R. Crane, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

Whether this alleged preference for better preparation arose out of a belief that it would increase the supposed efficacy of hellebore or make it safer to ingest, I do not know.

Pliny the Elder (23/24 CE- 79 CE) in his Natural History, Book 25, Chapter 21 discussed a hellebore which bore the name Melampodion and the stories associated with its supposed curative powers against madness:

‘The repute of Melampus, as being highly skilled in the arts of divination, is universally known. This personage has given a name to one species of hellebore, known as the “Melampodion.” Some persons, however, attribute the discovery of this plant to a shepherd of that name, who remarked that his she-goats were violently purged after browsing upon it, and afterwards cured the daughters of Prœtus of madness, by, giving them the milk of these goats.‘ – Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 25, Chapter 21 from The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Accessed online at Gregory R. Crane, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

He wrote of two varieties of hellebore, which he referred to as ‘the white’ and ‘the black’ hellebore, but noted that there was some confusion has to how different these varieties actually were:

‘According to most authorities, this difference exists in the root only. There are some authors, however, who assure us that the leaves of the black hellebore are similar to those of the plane-tree, only darker, more diminutive, and more jagged at the edges: and who say, that the white hellebore has leaves like those of beet when first shooting, though at the same time of a more swarthy colour, with reddish veins on the under side.‘- Pliny the Elder and Gregory R. Crane (editor), Natural History, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

It seems that this confusion between some varieties and perhaps what was meant by ‘hellebore’, which may have included false hellebores, persisted to some extent throughout the centuries. Was Pliny describing false hellebore? False hellebores, like true hellebores, are toxic and thus could have a purgative effect on people. The white hellebore, Pliny said, was harmless to horses, oxen and pigs and consumed by them. He noted what was supposed to be the best time harvest it and where to obtain the best quality white hellebore. It seems that there were also some naughty practices going on with regard to the supply of white hellebore, if he is to be believed:

‘The fourth rank is held by the white hellebore of Mount Parnassus, though it is often adulterated with that of the neighbouring districts of Ætolia.‘- Pliny the Elder and Gregory R. Crane (editor), Natural History, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

When discussing the plant he referred to as ‘black hellebore’, Pliny the Elder also noted that it was used by intellectuals as a stimulant during his lifetime and also in rituals:

‘…numbers of studious men are in the habit of taking it for the purpose of sharpening the intellectual powers required by their literary investigations.‘ – Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder and Gregory R. Crane (editor), Natural History, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

‘…it is used in fumigations, and for the purpose of purifying houses; cattle, too, are sprinkled with it, a certain form of prayer being repeated. This last plant, too, is gathered with more numerous ceremonies than the other: a circle is first traced around it with a sword, after which, the person about to cut it turns towards the East, and offers up a prayer, entreating permission of the gods to do so. At the same time he observes whether an eagle is in sight—for mostly while the plant is being gathered that bird is near at hand—and if one should chance to fly close at hand, it is looked upon as a presage that he will die within the year. ‘ – Pliny the Elder Pliny the Elder and Gregory R. Crane (editor), Natural History, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University.

He stated that in Italy the plant was referred to as ‘veratrum’. Today the scientific name for false black hellebore is Veratrum nigrum. It seems that some historical sources discussing the medicinal uses of hellebores did not always refer to true hellebore but we know that others did and that both true and false hellebores appear to have been used for similar purposes. As both true and false hellebores are toxic and symptoms of poisoning from false and true hellebores include diarrhoea, the desired purgative effects for people in the past would likely be similar.

Vomiting is a symptom of Vertrum nigrum (false black hellebore) and Veratrum album (white false hellebore) poisoning, which is consistent with the emetic uses Pliny the Elder attributed to white hellebore and the confusion he said some sources expressed as to the difference between the two. However, it is hard to be certain exactly which plant some sources are referring to.

The Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā (980 CE- 1037 CE), known as Avicenna in Europe, was the most influential physician and philosopher in the Islamic world during the medieval period. Islamic philosophers and physicians would also become influential in Europe, perhaps none more so than Avicenna and Rhazes. Avicenna’s writings on medicine, including Galenic medicine, wielded influence in scholastic circles and universities in Europe. His The Canon of Medicine continued to be utilised in the teaching of medicine and science into the early modern period. Like Greek and Roman authors before him, Avicenna noted the purgative powers of hellebore, and he demonstrated concern about its strength:

‘In general, strong drugs are dangerous, I mean like hellebore, because they cause spasms in the healthy body…‘- Avicenna in Mones Abu-Asab, Hakima Amri and Mark S. Micozzi, Avicenna’s Medicine: A New Translation of the 11^th-Century Canon With Practical Applications for Integrative Healthcare (New York, 2013).

Through various historical sources, we can see that the idea of ‘hellebores’, whether true or false hellebores, as remedies for various conditions persisted well into the early modern period in Europe- particularly as remedies for melancholy in the case of some hellebore varieties. One supposed cause of melancholy, too much black bile, was associated with the spleen. Black bile was thought to be generated within the spleen and it was believed that if there was too much of it, it might leak into other parts of the body and produce vapours which were thought to travel to the brain.

The title page of writer Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, first published in 1621, was printed with an engraving by Christian Le Blon from 1628 onwards. At the bottom of the title page were borage (also thought to have been effective against melancholy) and hellebore, just underneath the image of Burton in the persona of Democritus Junior (in which he addresses his readers in the preface of The Anatomy.) This hellebore seems to be a true hellebore to my eyes- but I’m no botanist!

The Anatomy of Melancholy listed various kinds of melancholy, from that which was brought on by love or being slighted by a lover to hypochondriac melancholy and religious melancholy. Burton himself claimed to be troubled by melancholy and said of his motivation for writing The Anatomy:

‘ I write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness, “no better cure than business,” as Rhasis holds’ -Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1652 edition. Project Gutenberg. Quote from the address to the reader or ‘Democritus Junior to the Reader’.

The ‘Rhasis’ he referred to here is the Islamic philosopher and physician Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī (c. 854- 925/935CE), also known as Rhazes in Latin.

In Burton’s Anatomy we can find another clue as to why hellebore was believed to be useful in treating melancholy, which was not just due to its purgative powers alone:

‘This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles. I speak not of those creatures which are saturnine, melancholy by nature, as lead, and such like minerals, or those plants, rue, cypress, &c. and hellebore itself…’- Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1652 edition. Project Gutenberg. Quote from the address to the reader or ‘Democritus Junior to the Reader’.

Hellebore was thought share a similarity with the affliction, in that the hellebore being referred to by Burton and some of his contemporaries was thought to have a sort of melancholic nature. It was ‘saturnine’ or gloomy in nature. We can see a further association of hellebore with a melancholic nature and with Saturn in the writings of Nicholas Culpeper.

In The English Physician, first published in 1652 and later known as The Complete Herbal, Nicholas Culpeper listed various names for different types of hellebore which were in use in England during the seventeenth century, some of which may be familiar to you; Setter-wort, Bear’s foot, Christmas-herb, and Christmas-flowers were among the names he listed. Culpeper, like Greek and Roman authors and Avicenna in previous centuries, demonstrated an awareness of the risks of ingesting hellebores and the need for caution.

‘It is an herb of Saturn, and therefore no marvel if it has some sullen conditions with it, and would be far safer, being purified by the art of the alchemist than given raw. If any have taken any harm by taking it, the common cure is to take goat’s milk…’ – Nicholas Culpeper, Complete Herbal, edited by Steven Foster (2019), p.30. Text gathered in this modern reprint from the 1653 edition of Complete Herbal and the 1850 edition published by Thomas Kelly of London.

Black bile, which might leak from the spleen to contaminate other parts of the body and thus lead to melancholy, was associated with the moon, Venus and autumn but perhaps the time of year hellebore varieties start to bloom (winter) led to their association with Saturn. With Culpeper’s description of hellebores we can see where black hellebore (Helleborus niger) gets its name despite having white flowers and also that other plants, were also referred to as hellebores at this time:

‘…the seeds are in colour black, and in form long and round. The root consists of numberless blackish strings all united into one head. There is another Black Hellebore, which grows up and down in the woods very like this, but only that the leaves are smaller and narrower, and perish in the Winter, which this doth not.‘ – Nicholas Culpeper, Complete Herbal, edited by Steven Foster, p.30.

Culpeper also echoed claims that hellebore was useful in the treatment of melancholy or, as he said, in the treatment of all kinds of melancholy- and more besides;

‘The roots are very effectual against all melancholy diseases, especially such as are of long standing, as quartan agues, and madness; it helps the falling sickness, the leprosy, both the yellow and black jaundice, the gout, sciatica, and convulsions; and this was found out by experience, that the root of that which grows wild in our country, works not so churlishly as those do which are brought from beyond sea, as being maintained by a more temperate air.’ – Nicholas Culpeper, Complete Herbal, edited by Steven Foster, p.30.

That Culpeper recommended hellebore which had grown in English soil is hardly surprising; in addition to believing that plants grown in English soil were genuinely more beneficial to English patients, Culpeper was also interested in translating medical texts such as the Pharmocopoeia into English. He included detailed instructions on how to prepare remedies so this knowledge would more accessible to a wider audience. Ingredients which could already be found in England were likely to be cheaper than imported ingredients. In promoting plants he knew could be found in England, Culpeper was preventing his audience from having to purchase expensive ingredients (if they were within their means) and so helping them to maintain more control over the medical treatment they could access and provide for themselves. By including detailed notes on the preparation of a remedy, he was enabling people to forgo apothecaries, physicians and their fees.

Although Culpeper noted the supposed usefulness of hellebores, he also emphasised the dangers of hellebores in some cases, especially in the hands of the ignorant (whilst having a dig at the Royal College of Physicians.) In his English translation of Pharmocopoeia, accompanying a recipe for Mel Helleboratum or ‘Honey Helleborated’ in which ‘white hellebore’ (perhaps Veratrum album/ white false hellebore) was the key ingredient, he wrote:

‘What a monstrum horrendum, horrible terrible Receipt have we got here? A pound of white hellebore boyled in fourteen pints of Water to seven; I would ask the Colledg (if they would not be angry, or if they be I cannot help it) whether the hellebore will not lose its vertue in the twentieth part of this infusion and decoction (for it must be infused (forsooth) three daies to a minute;) if a man may make so bold as to tell them the truth, A Taylors Goose being boyled that time, would make a Decoction near as strong as the Hellebore, but this they will not beleeve; well then be it so, imagine the Hellebore still to retain its vigor after being so long tired out with a tedious boyling (for less boyling would boyl an Ox) what should this Medicine do? purge Melancholly say they, but from whom? from men or beasts? for the Medicine would be so strong the Devil would not take it unless it were powred down his throat with a horn. I will not say they intended to kill men cum privilegio, that’s too gross…‘ – Nicholas Culpeper (translator and editor) and the Royal College of Physicians, Pharmacopœia Londinensis, 1653 edition., page 72. Early English Books Online.

In the ‘Catalogue of the Simples According to the Dispensary’ in the 1653 edition of Culpeper’s translation of the Pharmacopœia Londinensis, he specified what was meant by ‘white’ and ‘black hellebore’ and their uses (and dangers):

‘Ellebori, Veratri, albi, nigri. Of Hellebore, white and black. The root of white Hellebore, or Sneezwort, being grated and up the nose, causeth Sneezing, kills Rats, and Mice, being mixed with their meat: it is but a scurvy, churlish Medicine; being taken inwardly, and therefore better let alone than used; and yet Dr. Bright commends it for such as are mad through Melancholly. Others are of opinion such harsh Medicines are not convenient for so sullen an humor, and of that opinion am I my self: If you will use it, for sneezing, let your head and neck be wrapped hot for fear of carching cold.

Black Hellebore, Bears-foot, or Christmas flower; both this and the former are hot and dry in the third degree. This is nothing so violent nor dangerous as the former, Both Galen, and Julius Alexandrinus, report the roots of this boiled in Vineger to be an admirable remedy against inveterate Scabs, Itch and Leprosie, the same helps the Tooth-ach, being held in the mouth, and dropped into the ears, help deafness coming of Melancholly, and noise in the ears; corrected with a little Cionamon (in pouder) it purgeth Melancholly, resisteth Madness.‘- Culpeper (translator and editor) and the Royal College of Physicians, Pharmacopœia Londinensis, 1653 edition., page 6. Early English Books Online.

Here we can see that a variety of hellebores, true and false, were being recommended as medicinal remedies for various purposes. ‘Sneezewort’ is a name which, today at least, is used to refer to Achillea ptarmica. The plant is also known as ‘wild pellitory’, ‘white tansy’ and has many other names. It is known to be toxic to quite a few animals. ‘Bear’s-foot’ is used to refer to Helleborus foetidus or stinking hellebore, a variety of true hellebore native to Britain. ‘Christmas flower’ is, of course, a name we use today for Helleborus niger or the ‘true’ variety of black hellebore.

Despite its supposed usefulness against melancholy and other conditions, Culpeper also had strong words to say about a recipe in the Pharmacopœia called Syrupus Rosaccus Solutivus cum Helleboro (Syrup of Roses Solutive with Hellebore), which called for the use of black hellebore:

‘The syrup rightly used, purgeth melancholly, resisleth madness. I wish the ignorant to let it alone, for fear it be too hard for them, and use them as coursly as the Colledg hath done.‘ – Culpeper, (translator and editor) and the Royal College of Physicians, Pharmacopœia Londinensis, 1653 edition., page 70. Early English Books Online.

His main gripe here seems to have been people using it irresponsibly, without any idea of what they were doing and without caution- and perhaps the potential for an overdose because of this.

If those who commented on the usefulness of ‘hellebores’ throughout the centuries also demonstrated an awareness of the risks of ingesting them, why did they continue to use them? Well, they were effective as substances which acted as emetics (in the case of false hellebores) or purgatives. By purging the patient, it appeared that a remedy containing ‘hellebore’ (regardless of the species being referred to as hellebore) was at least doing something for the person taking it. So, it makes sense that those who advocated for the use of hellebore really believed that whatever plant they were using was addressing a supposed excess of black bile being secreted by the spleen. If a remedy appeared to do something, it may also have been perceived to work by the patients who ingested remedies containing hellebore. Perhaps a placebo effect was at work in some cases?

Indeed, in Michael Walkden’s study of ‘The Gut-Mind Axis and Hellebore in Early Modern England’ the author discusses instances in which physicians such as Richard Napier noted the apparent recoveries of patients after they had been purged using some sort of hellebore (true or false?). This sometimes occurred after other remedies available to them appeared to have no effect. That is not to say that the use of hellebores was universally welcomed; other physicians, apothecaries and their patients had less optimistic views of the use of plants referred to as ‘hellebore’, much like Culpeper had demonstrated.

Stephen King’s study of Sickness, medical welfare and the English Poor, 1750-1834 in his chapter on ‘The medical economy of makeshifts’ notes, among the records of Wiltshire coroners during the eighteenth century, a case of poisoning from white hellebore. This was attributed to a mistake made by an apothecary’s servant. ‘White hellebore’ is a name often used for Veratrum album today, so perhaps the white hellebore referred to in the coroner’s records was a false hellebore. Regardless of whether it was a true or false hellebore that led to a fatality in this case, it is clear that plants referred to as hellebores were still being used by apothecaries and sometimes with the deadly consequences Culpeper had warned of when they were mistaken for other plants.

The Christmas Rose

Today varieties of Helleborus niger or black hellebore are still referred to as ‘the Christmas rose’, with some cultivars known by other festive-sounding names- such as the ‘Christmas Carol’ hellebore pictured above. It’s easy to see why; the flowers really are reminiscent of wild varieties of roses and are as white as snow. One story goes that the plant was created when an angel took pity on a girl who had no gift for the newborn Christ.

Thankfully no longer ingested (at least not on purpose), this and other varieties of true hellebore still have some uses today, albeit mostly decorative where we are concerned. Today black hellebore and other varieties of true hellebore are incorporated into Christmas decorations and since the invention of the Christmas card during the nineteenth century, they have accompanied our festive wishes to friends and family. Its dark history seems to have been largely forgotten, save by those of us who go looking.

Do you incorporate hellebore into your festive decorations? Will you view it differently from now on?

–Steph

Bibliography

Primary sources

Mones Abu-Asab, Hakima Amri and Mark S. Micozzi, Avicenna’s Medicine: A New Translation of the 11^th-Century Canon With Practical Applications for Integrative Healthcare (New York, 2013).

Christian Le Blon (title page) and Robert Burton (author), The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1628 edition. The British Library.

Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1652 edition. Project Gutenberg.

Nicholas Culpeper, Complete Herbal, edited by Steven Foster (2019). Text gathered in this modern reprint from the 1653 edition of Complete Herbal and the 1850 edition published by Thomas Kelly of London.

Nicholas Culpeper (translator and editor) and the Royal College of Physicians, Pharmacopœia Londinensis, or, The London dispensatory further adorned by the studies and collections of the Fellows, now living of the said colledg … / by Nich. Culpeper, Gent., 1653 edition. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. The University of Michigan Library.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 25, Chapter 21 from The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855. Accessed online at Gregory R. Crane, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 02/10/23.

The four elements, four qualities, four humours, four seasons, and four ages of man. Airbrush by Lois Hague, 1991. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Wellcome Collection.

Further Reading

J. B. Bamborough, ‘Burton, Robert (1577-1640), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2009), accessed 17/07/23 [https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-4137]

Ronald Chase, Great Discoveries in Psychiatry (Berlin, 2021).

Patrick Curry, ‘Culpeper, Nicholas (1616-1654)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2004), accessed 17/07/23 [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6882]

Michael Frede, ‘The case for pagan monotheism in Greek and Graeco-Roman antiquity’, in Stephen Mitchell and Peter Van Nuffelen (editors), One God: Pagan monotheism in the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 53-81.

Roger French, ‘Harvey, William (1578-1657)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), accessed 17/07/23 [https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12531]

Wilfrid Llewelyn Jones, Ministering to Minds Diseased: A History of Psychiatric Treatment (Nottingham, 1983).

Elizabeth Lane Furdell, Publishing and Medicine in Early Modern England (University of Rochester Press, 2002).

Jacques Jouanna, Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers (Washington, 2012).

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