Eye Problems

For conjunctivitis and styes and for tired, red or strained eyes generally, bathe the eyes 2-3 times daily with a soothing lotion:

3 parts Eyebright herb

1 part Marigold flowers

Infusion: apply warm as a compress or eye lotion

Fennel, Chamomile, Elder flowers, Plantain and Raspberry leaves may be used in the same way.

For chronic eye problems or weak eyes, bathe the eyes with Eyebright, 15 minutes at a time, twice a day, for several weeks. Internal treatment may be used as well:

4 parts Eyebright herb

1 part Fennel seed

1 part Dandelion root

Infusion: 3 cups per day

Repeat the course of treatment from time to time.

Hayfever and Sinusitis

For relief from acute attacks of hayfever and sinusitis:

2 parts Sage leaves

1 part Elder flowers

1 part Eyebright herb

Infusion: 1/2-1 ñèð every 2-4 hours, not exceeding 4 cups per day

Treatment should not be used for more than one week at a time. Sage is the primary ingredient and can be used alone if necessary. This is a highly effective treatment and the limitations on its use are based simply on the ability of Sage to reduce the secretion of fluids: some caution should be made against excessive use of the herb otherwise it may slow secretions to a degree more than required (see entry on Sage in Section 2: Herbs).

For recurrent hayfever or chronic sinusitis:

1 part Elder flowers

1 part Eyebright herb

Infusion: 3 cups per day for 4 weeks — repeat if necessary after suspending treatment for 2 weeks.

*86/66/5*

Haemorrhoids

3 parts Shepherd’s Purse herb

3 parts Plantain leaves

3 parts Marigold flowers

1 part Fennel seed

Infusion: 3 cups per day

 

2 parts Witch Hazel leaves

2 parts Marigold flowers

2 parts Plantain leaves

2 parts Dandelion root

1 part Liquorice root

2 parts Marshmallow root

Infusion: 3 cups per day

Blackberry root bark

Decoction: 3 cups per day

For excessive haemorrhoidal bleeding:

2 parts Shepherd’s Purse herb

1 part Plantain leaves

1 part Yarrow herb

1 part Marshmallow root

Infusion: 1/2-1 ñèð every hour for acute conditions, otherwise 3 cups per day

 

As with many chronic conditions, extended treatment (with suitable breaks) may be required. For external use, Distilled Witch Hazel, combined 50/50 with an infusion of Marigold flowers and/or Plantain leaves, can be applied as a soothing and astringent lotion. Mullein oil is also useful, and an excellent all-purpose ointment may be prepared as follows:

1 part Witch Hazel leaves

1 part Plantain leaves

1 part Marigold flowers

1 part St John’s Wort herb

1 part Comfrey root

Ointment or oil: apply locally, renewing several times per day

Heartburn

12 parts Meadowsweet herb

1 part Fennel seed

1 part Anise seed

1 part Cinnamon bark

1 part Lemon Balm leaves

Infusion: 1 cup after every meal

Used for treating heartburn or hyperacid stomach, the above remedy is taken for its long-term effects rather than for immediate relief — hence treatment should extend over several weeks.

Alfalfa can also be taken long-term for its beneficial effect on hyperacidity of the stomach:

Alfalfa herb

Infusion: 1 cup after every meal

For more immediate relief:

6 parts Marshmallow root

2 parts Alfalfa herb

1 part Cinnamon bark

1 part Peppermint leaves

Infusion: 1/2 cup every hour, not to exceed 3 cups per day

*69/66/5*

Mentha spicata

Action: Aromatic, diaphoretic, stimulant, stomachic, carminative, cholagogue, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, local analgesic, anti-emetic, diuretic.

Systems Affected: Stomach, intestines, kidneys, bladder, uterus, circulation, nerves.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried leaves, dose 1-5 grams by infusion.

Spearmint has been known and used for culinary and medicinal purposes since ancient times. Native to the Mediterranean region, the Romans were responsible for its distribution throughout northern and western Europe. It is now cultivated commercially and as a garden plant and is probably the most widely used of all mints. The plant was formerly classified as Mentha viridis, a reference to its bright green colour, whereas the modern botanical name and the common name both reflect the spear-like shape of its leaves.

The medicinal properties of Spearmint are similar to those of Peppermint (stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, etc.) but less powerful. The taste is also milder and more pleasant than Peppermint, and for these reasons it is better adapted to children’s ailments.

Spearmint is particularly valued for its anti-emetic properties and is considered by many a specific for nausea and vomiting. It also relieves hiccough, flatulence and colic.

Unlike Peppermint it possesses some diuretic action and is a weak emmenagogue. It is used to treat inflammation of the kidneys and bladder and suppressed or painful urination.

A strong infusion of the herb was traditionally used as a local application for chapped hands. Long used as a culinary herb, Spearmint aids digestion, hence its use as a garnish, sauce, jelly or vinegar with such foods as lamb, peas and new potatoes.

*52/66/5*

Melissa officinalis

Action: Sedative, diaphoretic, antispasmodic, carminative.

Systems Affected: Nerves, circulation.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried leaves, dose 2-5 grams by infusion.

Lemon Balm is native to the Mediterranean region and has been cultivated in the area for over 2000 years. For almost half this period, however, it was used primarily as a bee plant. The Arabs introduced it as a medicinal plant, extolling its merits in treating anxiety and depression (Avicenna said that ‘it makes the heart merry, and strengthens the vital spirits’), and it has been used as a sedative or tonic tea ever since.

Lemon Balm is used mainly for treating nervous conditions such as anxiety and depression. As the American herbalist Michael Tierra states: ‘This herb is widely used to cure melancholy and diseases that are the result of finding ourselves in places and life situations we are not ready to accept.’

The infusion is recommended for poor digestion, flatulent dyspepsia, colic, dizziness and buzzing in the ears, palpitations, insomnia, headaches and many of the various disorders (even nightmares) common to nervous states of mind.

It is particularly recommended (up to 5 cups of the infusion per day) for premenstrual tension and period pain. It is an excellent-tasting diaphoretic or anti-fever tea, and is useful at the first signs of a cold, flu or fever. It is a safe and effective herb for treating infants and young children. The plant is used as a poultice or ointment to dress open wounds and the fresh leaf is soothing when rubbed on insect bites.

Lemon Balm possesses a pungent oil from which the Arabs make a perfume. It is a common monastery herb in Europe and monks and nuns prepare from it fragrant colognes and healing salves. In France it is the main ingredient of the well-known Carmelite tonic waters. It is an important constituent of several liqueurs, including Benedictine and Chartreuse, and is used for its aromatic properties in potpourris. It may be used for culinary purposes where a delicate lemon flavour is required.

*35/66/5*

Chamaemelum nobile. Synonym, Anthemis nobilis

Action: Nervine, carminative, antispasmodic, sedative, analgesic, emmenagogue, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, diaphoretic.

Systems Affected: Brain, nervous system, stomach, uterus, general effects on the whole body.

Preparation and Dosage (thrice daily): Dried flowers, dose 1-5 grams by infusion.

One of the best-known of all herbs, Chamomile has been in continuous use since the time of the Egyptians. Its name derives from the Greek chamaimelon, meaning ‘apple on the ground’, since all parts of the plant have a peculiar apple-like scent.

It is a valuable calming drink for anxiety, restlessness, nervous indigestion and insomnia. It improves appetite and relieves indigestion, vomiting and nausea. It is especially recommended for flatulent dyspepsia associated with mental stress.

Chamomile will help relieve pain and cramping associated with the menstrual cycle and will bring on the period.

It is safely used with children in the treatment of colds and flu, digestive problems and restlessness. A teaspoonful of a weak infusion can be given at intervals, according to the age and size of the baby or child.

Chamomile contains the amino acid tryptophan, which works like a sedative in the body, inducing relaxation and sleepiness. (Tryptophan is present also in milk and in the herb Vervain.) It also contains phosphates of calcium, magnesium and potassium, all of which are essential for regular functioning of the physical, emotional and intellectual nerve centers of the body. Part of the herb’s effect is in calming the vagus nerve, which plays a large part in digestive and respiratory processes.

To make proper use of Chamomile the French herbalist Jean Palaiseul suggests the following formulas:

For indigestion, flatulence, restlessness, insomnia: an infusion (5 grams of dried flowers to 100 ml of water), to be drunk preferably before eating.

For fever, facial neuralgia, influenzal aches and pains, pre-menstrual tension, period pain: a concentrated infusion (5 to 10 grams of dried flowers to 100 ml of water; leave to infuse for an hour).

For cramp, rheumatic pain, gout pain: prepare Chamomile oil by placing 50 to 60 grams of dried flowers in a glass jar with 500 ml of olive oil; seal the jar; expose to the sun or warm by a stove or heater for two or three days; leave for two to three weeks, stirring from time to time; strain and press. Use very hot, as a friction, on the affected areas.

For inflammation of the eyes, skin irritations and infections, pr p an infusion of 50 to 60 grams of flowers to a liter of water and leave to draw for twenty minutes or so; strain through a fine cloth and bat e or apply on compresses to the affected areas. ,

Lastly, ‘blondes can take advantage of a beauty secret known to the women of central Europe’ – shampoo with a liter of water in which a sachet containing 100 grams of flowers has been infused for half an hour. This will impart golden lights to the hair.

As with any herb containing volatile oils, Chamomile flowers should never be boiled, as the volatile oil, which contains many of the active ingredients, will escape in the steam.

Cautionary Notes: Excessive dosages may produce vomiting and dizziness. Chamomile can produce adverse reactions in people allergic to ragwort pollen.

*18/66/5*

Despite the fact that the homosexual offender vs. adults was not infrequently an only child or the youngest child in the family, lie got along very badly with his father and not well with his mother. Nevertheless, there are evidences that he was unusually partial to his mother.

His social life during childhood was quantitatively good: he had numerous friends of both sexes. He also engaged in a good deal of prepubertal sex play which even at this early date was preponderantly homosexual. An even more impressive omen is the fact that over a quarter of these offenders had, as children, sexual contact with adult males.

Two other childhood phenomena probably played an important role in their lives. First, their childhoods were often marred by illness, and second, they reached puberty earlier than any other group. This latter fact may be of extreme importance, for it means that these boys were faced with strong sexual urges at an age when society makes no provision for any expression of sexuality.

The homosexual offenders vs. adults seem to have had the strongest sex drive of any groups if frequency of activity is taken as a measure. This is particularly evident in adult life in the amount of masturbation, which suggests an urgency that could not brook the delays inherent in obtaining any sociosexual activity.

The adult heterosexual lives of these men were comparatively stunted. Petting began at a late date, there was little of it, and the techniques were rather restrained. Only two thirds had had premarital coitus, a percentage surpassed by other groups at far younger ages. The relative lack of heterosexual activity stemmed in large part from disinterest, which is also reflected in the small proportion who ever married.

These offenders were strongly homosexual: nine out of ten had had more than incidental homosexual contacts and three quarters had had extensive experience, which not infrequently was quite promiscuous.

The homosexual offenders vs. adults, as a group, do not appear particularly criminal or dangerous. They do not damage society, they merely do not fit into it.

*216\161\2*

Again like all homosexual offenders, relatively few of the homosexual offenders vs. children had extramarital coitus: 42 per cent of those who ever married, and the age-specific incidence is moderate to low. The age-specific incidence of extramarital coitus with prostitutes is quite low and frequently zero.

On the basis of our small sample, it appears that the average (median) offender with extramarital coitus had a moderate number of partners (five to six).

Too few cases are available to permit statements concerning the frequency of extramarital coitus among these offenders.

Being somewhat less heterosexually inclined than most, only about three quarters to four fifths of the currently separated, divorced, or widowed homosexual offenders vs. children had postmarital coitus—a rather low incidence. Their frequency was also relatively low in most age-periods. In consequence, the proportion of total outlet derived from postmarital coitus, either with companions or with prostitutes, tends to be small, ranging from 33 to 46 per cent in the former instance and from 2 to 4 per cent in the latter. The emphasis on prostitution seen in premarital life is absent in postmarital behavior.

Examination of the percentages of individuals whose first coital companions were of specified ages does not reveal anything meaningful. The homosexual offenders vs. children have intermediate percentages in the categories of girls under twelve, twelve to thirteen, and fourteen to fifteen. However, they display a low percentage (16 per cent) of persons whose initial coitus was with females of sixteen to seventeen; their low position in this particular rank-order is shared by the other homosexual offenders. In partners aged eighteen to twenty, however, the homosexual offenders vs. children unexpectedly rank second with 26 per cent—a sudden increase not seen in the other homosexual offenders. Nothing in our various statistical measurements explains this. With respect to first coital partners aged twenty-one and over, they occupy an intermediate rank.

The tabulation of the verbally expressed age preference does not indicate that the homosexual offender vs. children is in any way unusual, and the same may be said of the data regarding incestuous behavior.

*174\161\2*

In our analyses of sexual arousal from seeing or thinking of males and females, or from viewing pornographic or sadomasochistic materials, the incest offenders are outstanding in two respects. First, more of them responded sexually to thinking of or seeing females than was true of any other group. Only 4 per cent reported little or no arousal from these stimuli, while most of our comparative groups had four or five times as many unresponsive members. In this respect the incest offenders vs. children differ markedly from the other incest offenders, of whom about one quarter reported little or no response. The responsiveness of the incest offenders vs. children fits in with their preoccupation with sex, which is typical of the dependent variety of incest offender. However, only a moderate proportion of incest offenders vs. children reported strong arousal from sight or thought of females. Their second salient feature is one shared with the other incest offenders: an extremely small proportion (4 per cent) responded to the sight or thought of males.

These incest offenders had the second largest (23 per cent) proportion of alcoholics. They also have the distinction of having among their number the fewest teetotalers—only 4 per cent. The importance of alcohol to this group of sex offenders is obvious.

*132\161\2*

The heterosexual aggressors vs. minors rapidly acquired masturbatory experience after puberty. By age fourteen a full 92 per cent were experienced, and 96 per cent by age sixteen. This is the most rapid cumulation seen in any group. In age-specific incidence the single aggressors had the largest proportion (96 per cent) who masturbated from puberty to age fifteen. However, in the following period (16-20) the figure is a moderate 86 per cent. Like all aggressors, they show a tendency toward high maximal frequencies: most sex offenders never exceeded twice a week, but more of the aggressors had their maximal “records” in the 3 to 5 per week category than in any other category of frequency.

This tendency toward high maximal frequencies foreshadows the masturbatory frequencies in premarital life, at least up to age twenty, which is as far as our data permit analysis. The aggressors vs. minors display the second highest average (mean) frequency between puberty and age fifteen (3.6 per week) and the fourth highest (2.3, exceeded only by the three homosexual-offender groups) between ages sixteen and twenty. The other measure of average, the median, shows the average aggressor vs. minors ranking high-intermediate in masturbatory frequency between puberty and age fifteen, and in third rank between ages sixteen and twenty, both frequencies being 1.5 per week. In brief, the aggressors vs. minors have high frequencies of masturbation prior to marriage, second only to those of the homosexual offenders. Too few married aggressors vs. minors exist in our sample to permit calculation of their masturbatory frequencies.

In masturbatory fantasy the aggressors vs. minors are quite outstanding. More of them (96 per cent) fantasied than did the members of any other group. A high percentage of individuals who fantasy is characteristic of all aggressors. The fantasy content also provides an interesting insight into the aggressors vs. minors: every one of the 96 per cent had had heterosexual fantasies and 17 per cent (the largest percentage) had had sadomasochistic fantasies. Note only 2 per cent of the control group had sadomasochistic fantasies. The aggressors vs. adults ranked in second place. The fact that the men in these two aggressor groups were ultimately convicted of heterosexual offenses involving force or threat is in keeping with their fantasy life. The emphasis on fantasy is, of course, related to their general psychological responsiveness.

The aggressors vs. minors, like the aggressors vs. children, reported that for almost half of the years during which they masturbated they worried about it. This places both groups in fourth rank of a rank-order of “worriers.”

Comparatively few (18 per cent, the third smallest percentage) first learned of masturbation from talking or reading rather than through self-discovery. An above-average number (30 per cent) learned by being masturbated by someone else. The figure for being masturbated (which greatly exceeds that of the aggressors vs. children) may be the result of the abundance of prepubertal sex play that characterizes the aggressors vs. minors as compared to the aggressors vs. children. This sex play, with its opportunities to observe masturbation or to be masturbated, when coupled with the beginning of masturbation at an early age makes the aggressor vs. minors rank high in the categories of learning by seeing, and by being masturbated; consequently the percentage who learned by talking or reading is correspondingly reduced.

*90\161\2*

The heterosexual offenders vs. minors, like the offenders vs. children, show no salient features in their sexual behavior or dreams during sleep. About all that one can say is that they are less inclined than most offenders to have nocturnal emissions. This is more noticeable in early life: by age fourteen, for example, only 15 per cent had had that experience contrasted with the control group’s 44 and the prison group’s 28 per cent. This may be largely the result of their unusually successful search for heterosexual outlet; a group with considerable coital activity can be expected to have fewer nocturnal emissions and sexual dreams. It could equally well be the result of the unimaginative-ness associated with the lower intelligence they manifest.

The frequency of nocturnal emission is correspondingly moderate to low, as is seen in the median frequencies within various age-periods: the median individual had 4 or 5 per year from puberty on, a frequency much lower than that of the control group. The erratic behavior of the mean frequencies is due to one extremely unusual individual; if one disregards him, the mean frequencies are also moderate to low.

The age-specific incidence of nocturnal emissions among the single males is always low to moderate, hovering around 60 per cent (except for a very low 25 per cent during the years from puberty to fifteen), but from thirty-one to thirty-five this 60 per cent figure earns them fourth rank because the incidence figures of the other groups have decreased while the offenders vs. minors maintain their remarkable stability of incidence. As for the married offenders vs. minors it is of interest to note that they had a low age-specific incidence of nocturnal emissions: only between one fifth and two fifths experienced nocturnal emissions in any five-year period.

The small number of males experiencing nocturnal orgasms includes one single male and one married male with extraordinarily high frequencies; in consequence the calculations for percentage of total outlet derived in sleep are misleading. Were it not for these two persons the percentages would be in no way unusual. The separated, divorced, or widowed males display, in general, moderate percentages, usually the same as or less than those of the control group.

*48\161\2*