Carol Dougherty has kindly sent some extracts from the medical notebooks of her great-uncle John West, who was born in Warwickshire in the 1860s. In the 1930s – ‘this was apparently about the time he learned to write, so I think he was putting onto paper remedies which he used for many years before’ – he recorded the following blood-purifier:

1 oz wood sanicle [Sanicula europaea]
1 oz queen’s delight
1 oz bloodroot [Sanguinaria canadensis]
Boil [in] 3 pints of water
Let it simmer to 3 gills
Take 3 or 4 wine-glass a day.

Has anyone any idea what ‘queen’s delight’ is?

Images:
Upper: bloodwort, Fungus Guy, Wiki Commons
Lower: wood sanicle, Down House, Downe, London Borough of Bromley, May 2022.

Updated 6 June 2022.