"Many a times I find my patients disturbed by trouble of conscience and sorrow and I have to act a divine before I can be a physician. In fact our greatest skils (sic) lies in the infusion of hopes, to induce confidence and peace of mind".

N. Culpeper, Gent.

Nicholas Culpeper was a lifelong student of medicine, astrology, and medical botany whose many books have influenced the practice of medicine into the 20th century. Culpeper's Herbal (1) (originally entitled The English Physitian) has been continuously published for more than 350 years. Culpeper studied at Cambridge University until his childhood sweetheart, with whom he planned to elope, was killed by lightning. He apprenticed with a master apothecary in London and cultivated an interest in medical botany and subsequently a very busy medical practice. A humble Puritan iconoclast, Culpeper lambasted the physicians of his day for their greed, their dedication to the health of the rich, their use of toxic "remedies" and bloodletting, and for their resistance to incorporating advances in knowledge into medical practice. Culpeper combined an empirical common sense with a Christian conviction that God provided, in English fauna, cures for every English ill, and therefore Englishmen needed "no American or Indian drugges." He was, however, devoted to the astrological folly of his time. Unlike his contemporaries Harvey and Sydenham, who wrote in Latin for their medical confreres, Culpeper sought to educate the public about health; he translated several important medical works from Latin to English. He took a particular interest in diseases of the eye and had a serious empirical interest in human anatomy. Culpeper wrote one of the first treatises on gynecology and obstetrics in English, which emphasized the importance of cleanliness and nutrition. Culpeper's Herbal was used as a medical guide by many generations of British herbwives and American colonists. Culpeper ran afoul of the Society of Apothecaries for translating the London Pharmcopeia from Latin to English, and also for advocating simple botanical remedies in place of the more complicated and expensive concoctions sold by the apothecaries of his day.

Although Culpeper considered astrology a mechanism by which providence caused illness and healing, Culpeper sought to demystify medicine for the benefit of the public. An avid smoker, and known to be fond of wine, Culpeper died of respiratory illness (probably tuberculosis complicated by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) at age 38. Although derided by the Royal College of Physicians and the Apothecaries of his time, Culpeper was widely renowned and beloved even during his short life.

Despite his enormous following and influence on folk medicine, and his importance in medical history, the judgment of medical historians on Culpeper has not always been kind. Garrison (1929), (2) for example, is particularly harsh in his estimation:

Old Nicholas Culpeper, the arch herbalist and quacksalver of the time, indulged in a vast amount of scurrilous railery at the expense of the London Pharmacopoeias of 1618 and 1650, but, except for his herb-lore, was himself only the credulous astrolger described by Nedham, as a "frowsy-headed coxcomb" who had "gallimawfried the Apothecaries' Book into nonsense" in his aim to "monopolize to himself all the knavery and covenage that ever an apothecary's shop was capable of."

This judgment seems both unfair and historically inaccurate. Culpeper did indeed offer amendations to the Pharmacopoeia which are all noted as such in his text. The London Dispensatory of the time contained many toxic and useless remedies. Culpeper spent his days treating the poor and his evenings in scholarship. Never having attained a medical degree, Culpeper referred to himself as a "student of physick" rather than as a physician. His fame and popularity did not make him rich. After his death, a number of works falsely attributed to Culpeper were published in hopes of profit from his reputation.

The Culpeper family was notable on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the founders of Virginia were relatives of Nicholas Culpeper's, who were of the Royalist persuasion during the English Civil War and who emigrated to the new world from the Netherlands where they had fled in exile with Charles II. A City and county in Virginia are named in their honor, and there exists a Culpeper Flag from the American Revolutionary period. The first two medical books published in America were both by Nicholas Culpeper: his Herbal (published at Boston in 1708 and re-titled "The New English Physitian" in subsequent editions) and Culpeper's English translation of the London Dispensatory.

As noted by Thulesius (3) in his splendid biography, there is some mystery as to the origin of the name Culpeper. In Middle English, the name may have had the connotation of "mischief maker."

Mark D. Kline, M.D.
Indiana University School of Medicine
December 19, 1997
Modified March 13, 2001 - Laramie, Wyoming

References:

1. Culpeper N: The English Physitian: or an astro-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick, whereby a man may preserve his body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things only as grown in England, being most fit for English bodies, etc. pp 259 (London: Peter Cole, 1652). This is Culpeper's famous Herbal. More than 100 editions have been produced. The first American edition (1708) was the first medical book published in America. The Cushing Library at Yale University School of Medicine has made Harvey Cushing's personal copy of Culpeper's Herbal available online.

2. Garrison FH: An Introduction to the History of Medicine, 4e, reprinted, Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co., 1929, p. 289

3. Thulesius O: Nicholas Culpeper, English Physician and Astrologer. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1992.