The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7348 p558
7 May 2005

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Buttons and adder’s meat more
Everyone for himself in a selfish society more
Words change their meaning — but not always for the better more

Buttons and adder’s meat

At this time of year the grass in the hedgerows in my part of England is becoming sprinkled with the white blooms of the chickweed, Stellaria media. They are in such marked contrast to the otherwise drab background that they inevitably draw attention to themselves.

Chickweed is also known as stitchwort, and a little later will be joined in the hedgerows by the equally striking greater stitchwort, S holostea, which goes under a host of vernacular names, including milkmaids, star of Bethlehem, shirt-buttons and poor-man’s-buttonhole. Among the more intriguing names are cuckoo’s meat, adder’s meat and thunderflower. When the seed capsules become ripe in May and the seeds are ejected with a smart cracking noise, the plant draws even further attention to itself.

Greater stitchwort is traditionally reputed to be under the protection of the devil, pixies, goblins and snakes. Children have been warned not to pick the plant, since adders were thought to lurk at its roots. Moreover, picking it would put them in the power of any goblins in the vicinity or would provoke an outbreak of thunder and lightning. Nevertheless, the white blossoms were often woven into buttonholes.

Although both species of stitchwort are generally regarded as an undesirable weed, they have found their uses in the rustic economy. They have been eaten in salads and fed to poultry and caged birds, for which they enjoy a reputation for promoting health and growth. Their colloquial name stems from a belief that, when consumed in wine, they relieve the painful sensation of stitch in the side after exercise.

The bruised leaves were once used as poultices to reduce the pain and swelling produced by a bee sting, and generally to allay inflammatory reactions. An ointment made with lard was applied to chilblains and rashes to treat rheumatism and stiffness of joints. An infusion made by pouring water over the leaves and adding lemon peel has been drunk as a remedy for such varied conditions as bronchitis, constipation and stomach upsets.

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Everyone for himself in a selfish society

It never ceases to amaze me how selfish and shortsighted humans can be. One result of this disposition is to speed up the tempo of living. No one dare stand and stare and everyone is constantly on edge to prevent his neighbour getting to the finishing line before him. What the finishing line may be is impossible to define, but if anyone can be seen away in front, that calls for a greater effort to win the race. But for what?

It was Benjamin Franklin who remarked in 1748, “Remember that time is money,” a comment I have always regarded as a singularly foolish, although I am aware that in the fiercely competitive world it is axiomatic. It is on a par with the saying that of a more recent politician that “there is no such thing as society”. But when Baroness Thatcher said that, she added that “there are individual men and women, and there are families”, which did something to correct the crudity of the pronouncement.

The notion of nature being red in tooth and claw and the concept of the survival of the fittest have no place in a civilised society. And if we wish to live in it we have to consider that others have as much inborn right as ourselves to eat, sleep and keep warm.

We hear a great deal today about human rights, but almost nothing about human obligations, but there are many individuals who imagine that their rights come before the necessities of the less fortunate. They claim the right to luxuries that are far from necessities. If they fall ill they are entitled to treatment and drugs that others cannot afford, although in many instances it is their style of living that makes them ill in the first place — over-rich foods, alcohol, tobacco and sheer physical laziness. Moreover, in seeking rewards for any work they do they cannot rest satisfied with sums that will cover reasonable daily expenses but must always have more because their neighbours have more.

Those who have made fortunes have the urge to make even greater fortunes and do not consider taking it easy for the rest of their lives. The problem seems to be that money means power, and power is more addictive than alcohol or tobacco. Is contentment, then, no virtue?

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Words change their meaning — but not always for the better

The discipline of etymology is concerned with the derivation and meaning of the words we use today to share ideas. The title is drawn from the Latinised Greek word etymon, signifying the true meaning of the word.

The Stoic philosophers of the fourth century believed that all languages were in a state of deterioration brought on by the ravages of time and that in considering true meaning a search should be made for the original form of the word — its etymon. According to this notion, the best literature must always be the earliest, a theory that later philosophers have denounced as error.

Words have remained under suspicion. In 1651 Thomas Hobbes, the political philosopher, commented: “For words are wise men’s counters, — they do not reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.”

Today many people are gravely concerned that political activists commonly make statements that sound positive on the surface but are interpreted as something completely different when it comes to discussion of meaning and intention. We have reached the stage where statements of political intent are put down to deliberate falsehood, since if they are queried the answer is always equivocal, not positive.

Words have even lost their strict meaning; “gay”, for example, is no longer used to mean light-spirited. Gender bias, invented by feminist fanatics, is becoming something of a joke when we are asked to adopt “herstory” for “history”, “girlcott” for “boycott”, “humankind” for “mankind” and to call the person presiding over a meeting “the chair” — which is, of course, something to sit on. And we often use false singulars and plurals derived from our classical heritage, such as “a criteria” instead of “a criterion”, “this data” instead of “these data” and “a media” instead of “a medium”.

In looking for a scapegoat we must consider that our educational system, which turns almost all its attention to producing money-earners and winners, is to blame. Herbert Spencer, the social philosopher, remarked in 1850: “Education has for its object the formation of character.” And nearly a century later, the historian G. M. Trevelyan commented that education “has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals”.

Perhaps if we revised our ideas on the education in our schools we might produce a generation immune to the ungrammatical, inaccurate and even deliberately misleading pronouncements of politicians, who often seem to be concerned more with their own prosperity and welfare than with ours.

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