Cannthropology
WORLD OF Cannabis PRESENTS
The
Apothecary Age
THE BIRTH OF BOTANY Europe’s Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries brought with it a surge of activity in both botany and book printing. As a result, a number of English herbalists began publishing a wave of treatises on plants and their medicinal properties. Among the first of these was a clergyman and Oxford scholar named Robert Burton. For most of his life, Burton suffered from “melancholy” – an epidemic of the day that likely encompassed clinical depressions and several other modern mental illnesses. In an effort to ease the angst of both himself and others, he spent over 20 years studying and writing about the topic. The result was a sprawling, pseudo-scientific magnum opus entitled “The Anatomy of Melancholy.” First published in 1621, the text is separated into three partitions, the second Oxford clergyman and of which deals with proposed scholar Robert Burton. GILBERT JACKSON
LEAFMAGAZINES.COM
It’s estimated that the medicinal use of Cannabis dates back to at least 2900 BCE, when it was used by Chinese emperors who reportedly credited it with bringing “balance and healing to body, mind and spirit.” There’s also evidence that it was used by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Hindus … but it wasn’t until the end of the Middle Ages that the idea of Cannabis as medicine began to take root in Western culture.
JAN. 2022
An assortment of vintage apothecary bottles and jars from the World of Cannabis collection.
treatments. In it, Burton lists “hemp-seed” among the many herbs and spices purported to alleviate the malady. Next, in 1640, botanist John Parkinson noted in his “Theatrum Botanicum”: “The decoction, of the [hempe] roote is sayd to allay inflammations in the head or any other part, ” and that “it is good to be used, for any place that hath beene burnt by fire, if the fresh juyce be mixed with a little oyle or butter.” Then in 1652, proto-pharmaceutical manual “The English Physitian” (later re-titled “The Complete Herbal”) by botanist Nicholas Culpeper systematically cataloged hundreds of outdoor medicinal herbs and their uses – including hemp, whose extract he proclaimed “allayeth Inflammations in the Head … eases the pains of the Gout … Knots in the Joynts, [and] the pains of the Sinews and Hips.” Nearly two centuries later, the topic of Cannabis and mental health was addressed in more depth by French psychiatrist Jacques-Joseph Moreau. As you
may recall from the “HasHistory” installment of Cannthropology (Aug. 2021), Dr. Moreau co-founded Paris’ infamous Club des Hashischins, in part to study the effects of hashish on its Botanist Nicholas Culpeper, members’ psyches. The author of “The Complete Herbal.” results were published in his 1845 book “Hashish and Mental Illness” – the first scientific psychiatric work on the topic, in which he concluded that the drug reproduced the effects of certain mental illnesses, but was also helpful in aiding sleep, increasing the appetite and suppressing headaches. But arguably, the man most responsible for introducing Cannabis into modern Western medicine was an Irish physician named William Brooke O’Shaughnessy. O’SHAUGHNESSY As a young man, O’Shaughnessy studied anatomy, chemistry and forensic toxicology in Scotland
ENGRAVING BY RICHARD GAYWOOD
44
Detailing Cannabis’ entrance into, and subsequent exile from, modern medicine.
