Book of the Month July - Summertime is Herb Time

Under the heading "Book of the Month", we present one of the approximately 12,000 books in the Adalbert Raps Spice Library every month. In 2022, the selection will be made to match the respective months, and everything from specialist books to old memorabilia to curiosities will be on offer - so it's worth taking a look!

July's book of the month on the marriage of herbs is one of the centrepieces of the Adalbert Raps Library - the work "Das große illustrierte Kräuterbuch" (The Great Illustrated Herbal) by the physician Dr. Ferdinand Müller, published as early as 1860 in the 9th edition of 1924. Despite its age, this book is still reprinted today in the various editions.  

The 912 pages written in Fraktur script offer a very comprehensive reference work on medicinal plants and herbs. At the beginning, the principles of remedies are dealt with and explanations are given, for example, terms such as emulsion or filtration are explained. This is followed by a brief overview of the structure of the human body.

The following main section deals with medicinal plants, poisonous plants, mushrooms, spice plants and even minerals. Many of the medicinal statements certainly no longer correspond to the current state of science, but the work nevertheless offers a good reference work on botany. A note at the beginning of the book, however, already showed the limits of medical science at that time: self-treatment of venereal diseases is strongly discouraged and those affected can only find relief through professional treatment by doctors.

Book: Das große illustrierte Kräuterbuch| Dr. Ferdinand Müller | 1924 | Verlag der J. Ebner'schen Buchhandlung, Ulm | ISBN 10: 3955073475; ISBN 13: 9783955073473