The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7459 p28
7 July 2007

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Fragrant bog plant with many folk uses more
Englishness, nationalism and the looting of artefacts from ancient sites more
Physician helped artist to fame more

Could you be an Onlooker?

Fragrant bog plant with many folk uses

I recently came across an attractive plant flourishing in a boggy patch of heathland almost on my doorstep. It was the bog myrtle or sweet gale (Myrica gale), a wetland shrub that bears orange-brown catkins in spring and early summer. It has a delicious fragrance, especially when in flower. Indeed the entire plant is odorous.

The plant has become uncommon in much of England since the draining of many of the wetlands but it still keeps a hold in the wet sandy soil in such areas as the New Forest. It thrives in the peat bogs of Scotland, where it was adopted as the badge of the Campbell clan.

Bog myrtle has had a variety of folk uses. In Scotland, where its volatile oil has long been extracted by steam distillation, a consortium involving Alliance Boots is now involved in research to exploit the oil commercially in cosmetics and other products.

One of the plant’s main folk uses is as an insect deterrent, for which purpose it has for generations been placed in linen stores to repel moths. In Scotland, sprigs of the bloom were worn in buttonholes to keep midges away from the face. On a larger scale, mattresses were stuffed with it to deter all manner of pests.

Faggots for the domestic cloam oven were commonly of bog myrtle stalks. These also provided a yellow dye for wool and cotton when infused. Resin added to the wax for tallow candles helped to perfume the living rooms.

More commonly, the herb was used in home brewing before the introduction of hops. According to Gerard it added a headiness to ale and beer and hastened the onset of drunkenness.

Bog myrtle had a poor reputation in some communities, where it was suspected of imparting a taint to milk from cows allowed to browse on pastures where it flourished. However, cattle are not as a rule keen on its taste and tend to avoid it.

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Englishness, nationalism and the looting of artefacts from ancient sites

In the current issue of Current Archaeology there is a discussion by Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University, concerning the real definition of the English. The recent proliferation and celebration of England's national flag has been promoted by a rising interest in international sports and in particular by last year's football World Cup, which saw a burst of car flag mania and the display of the cross of St George outside shops, houses and schools.

Since the World Cup, the use of national symbols has generated some disquiet. Curiously enough, Germans have recovered to a great degree from their previous reluctance to show pride in their country and its interests.

The burst of car flag mania in England took social commentators by surprise. Some saw it as a good advertisement, while others muttered of a worrying resurgence of nationalism, with intolerance and even race hatred.

Britain is now multicultural and some find the old concepts of British, English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish inseparable from the legacy of imperialism and subjection. There is always the lurking fear that extremists will exploit the situation.

Part of the trouble, writes Dr Russell, is the lack of a national museum where Britain’s history is celebrated extensively. The displays in the British Museum collections illustrate ancient civilisations such as Greece and Rome better than they do British history.

Many of the museum’s present items can be viewed as loot. An example is the Parthenon (Elgin) marbles, which the Greek government insists should be restored to Athens, where a place for their display is already constructed. With the coming of the Olympic Games to London in 2012 there is fresh embarrassment on the horizon. Repatriation of the loot before the games would, it is suggested, constitute a welcome gesture from the archaeological world.

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Physician helped artist to fame

One of our celebratory events in 2007 is the bicentenary of the death of the portrait painter John Opie, who came to fame through the sponsorship of a local physician.

The son of a carpenter in poor circumstances, John Opie was born in 1761 at Harmony Cot, near St Agnes, Cornwall. He developed a passion for drawing and painting, which drew the close attention of the physician John Wolcot. Wolcot became Opie’s sponsor and took him to London, where he marketed him as the “Cornish Wonder”.

Opie’s portraits of contemporaries brought him great renown and membership of the Royal Academy. Among his creations were “The murder of Rizzio”, “Jephtha’s vow”, and “Juliet in the garden”. He also wrote a life of his contemporary, Joshua Reynolds.

Wolcot was himself famous as a satirist under the pen-name Peter Pindar. He had been a physician in Jamaica, taking his MD at Aberdeen in 1787. He practised medicine in Truro, where he resided with his protégé.

Opie produced more than 750 pictures before his death at the age of 46. He was given a state funeral and is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Could you be an Onlooker?

At the end of this year, the current incumbent of the Onlooker page is to put down his pen. For the next six months he will begin to provide less material until he stops in December. Tradition dictates that he will remain anonymous unless he chooses to declare his identity in the last column of the year.

However, we can reveal that he is now in the 10th decade of his life and has been producing columns week in week out, year in year out for more than 30 years — no mean achievement.

We thank him for his contributions over the decades.

We suspect that our current correspondent may be irreplaceable. Nevertheless, we are actively seeking others to pick up the baton. If you would like to write on matters of peripheral relevance to pharmacy but of interest or entertainment to your professional colleagues, please let us know. Your identity will remain anonymous and we will create a suitable nom de plume to reflect your style.

Olivia Timbs
Editor