The Old Vegetable Neurotics - The Skeptical Occultist

“The Old Vegetable Neurotics: Hemlock, Opium, Belladonna and Henbane; Their Physiological Action and Therapeutical Use Alone and in Combination” by John Harley In my research into the trimunative of witches herbs I recently stumbled upon this fantastic medical document from 1869 that covers doses of increasing size utilizing Henbane, Belladonna, Hemlock and Opium as medicinal therapy. The book has an incredible frontpiece in the scan found on the web. An ouroboros around some figure, possibly Hippocrates. Unlike almost all books dealing with the ritual use of these herbs Harley doesn’t hesitate to list the entire process, doses used and length of time specific symptoms occur. Its a fantastic and rather scientific approach that doesn’t mention any of the historical context for the herbs themselves. Remarkably the book suggests that Harley experimented on himself with the hexing herbs, developing methodologies for distillation and extraction of the primary constitutes of these plants and further using them on both animal and human patients. His offhanded manner suggests more than a passing level of self experimentation with specific types of chemicals. I have been able to find only scant info on the book’s author John Harley. He was educated at King’s College London and head physician at St Thomas’s Hospital from 1872. The book itself was published in 1869. It could be the book amounts to his doctoral thesis. Certainly more research into the author is required. I have a feeling some interesting details could be found hiding in some university stacks about this doctor’s life. The book can be gotten as a pdf from google and from archive.org for free. google archive