Primitive Physic

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, had very wide ranging interests. Those interests extended to healthy living and healing. He wrote a very popular book entitled Primitive Physic, which was basically a collection of home remedies. The book went through many editions. He offered cures for an unbelievably wide range of disorders. I include the following from the book as an example:

The Gout in any Limb
378.  Rub the part with warm treacle [molasses*], and then bind on a flannel smeared therewith.  Repeat this, if need be, once in twelve hours.
- This has cured inveterate Gout in thirty-six hours.
379.  Or, drink a pint of strong infusion of elder-buds dry or green, morning and evening.  This has cured inveterate Gouts.
380.  Or, at six in the evening, undress and wrap yourself up in blankets.  Then put your legs up to the knees in water, as hot as you can bear it.  As it cools, let hot water be poured in, so as to keep you in a strong sweat till ten.  Then go into a bed well warmed and sweat till morning. --- I have known this cure an inveterate Gout, in a person above sixty, who lived eleven years after. --- The very matter of the Gout is frequently destroyed by a steady use of Mynsicht's Elixir of Vitriol." (Wesley, Primitive Physic, 69-70.)

Gout is caused by too much uric acid in the blood, which causes deposits of uric acid crystals in the joints, legs and arms, causing swelling. Even now it is thought to be triggered by rich foods, meat, and alcohol.  It is considered to be a disease of a highly civilized lifestyle, and has a genetic/hereditary component.  Wesley believed its discomfort could be decreased if it was hereditary, and cured if it was not.  Both John and his mother, Suzanna had it (Madden, Deborah A Cheap, Safe and Natural Medicine' Religion, Medicine and Culture in John Wesley's Primitive Physic (232-33, 270). One of the ways to get rid of the uric acid  is to increase urination. 

#380 Therefore, hot bathing would stimulate urination of toxic chemicals and also relax arthritic inflammation. (Root-Bernstein, Robert and Root-Bernstein, Michele.  Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels: The Science Behind Folk Remedies and Old Wives' Tales (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997),

#379 Elder bud tea is helpful because it not only is a diuretic which makes people excrete urine, but it also has a tranquilizing effect (Madden, Cheap, 233).

With that rather lengthy introduction let me pass on the recipe for a barley/cabbage soup, from More-with-Less, which I think would meet with Wesley’s approval as a good choice.

• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 4 cups meat or vegetable broth (I used beef bouillon)
• 1–2 tablespoons oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3–4 cups green cabbage, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups milk
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt

Directions:

1. Combine pearl barley and broth in a kettle and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
2. Sauté onions, cabbage, and parsley if using it, in oil. Cook until soft, but do not brown.
3. Make a white sauce with the flour, milk, bouillon cubes, and celery salt.
4. Add white sauce to barley and broth.
5. Stir in sautéed cabbage and onion.
6. Check seasonings. Serve sprinkled with bacon bits, chopped ham, or croutons.

From More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Copyright © 1976, 2000, 2011 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.