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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 49 из 147The old English herbalists, you know, are a very interesting study. There are so many plants that were formerly used in medicine and which have now disappeared from the official Pharmacop?ia. And it’s astonishing, really, how a simple decoction of something or other will really work wonders. No need for doctors half the time. The French understand these things-some of theirtisanes are first rate.’ He was well away now on his hobby.
‘Dandelion tea, for instance; marvellous stuff. And a decoction of hips-I saw the other day somewhere that that’s coming into fashion with the medical profession again. Oh yes, I must confess, I got a lot of pleasure out of my brews. Gathering the plants at the right time, drying them-macerating them-all the rest of it. I’ve even dropped to superstition sometimes and gathered my roots at the full of the moon or whatever it was the ancients advised. On that day I gave my guests, I remember, a special disquisition on the spotted hemlock. It flowers biennially. You gather the fruits when they’re ripening, just before they turn yellow. Coniine, you know, is a drug that’s dropped out-I don’t believe there’s any official preparation of it in the last Pharmacop?ia-but I’ve proved the usefulness of it in whooping cough-and in asthma too, for that matter-’
‘You talked of all this in your laboratory?’
‘Yes, I showed them round-explained the various drugs to them-valerian and the way it attracts cats-one sniff at that was enough for them! Then they asked about deadly nightshade and I told them about belladonna and atropine. They were very much interested.’
‘They? What is comprised in that word?’
Meredith Blake looked faintly surprised as though he had forgotten that his listener had no first-hand knowledge of the scene.
‘Oh, the whole party. Let me see, Philip was there and Amyas, and Caroline, of course. Angela. And Elsa Greer.’
‘That was all?’
‘Yes-I think so. Yes, I am sure of it,’ Blake looked at him curiously. ‘Who else should there be?’
‘I thought perhaps the governess-’
‘Oh, I see. No, she wasn’t there that afternoon. I believe I’ve forgotten her name now. Nice women. Took her duties very seriously. Angela worried her a good deal I think.’
‘Why was that?’
‘Well, she was a nice kid, but she was inclined to run wild. Always up to something or other. Put a slug or something down Amyas’s back one day when he was hard at work painting. He went up in smoke. Cursed her up and down dale. It was after that that he insisted on this school idea.
‘Dandelion tea, for instance; marvellous stuff. And a decoction of hips-I saw the other day somewhere that that’s coming into fashion with the medical profession again. Oh yes, I must confess, I got a lot of pleasure out of my brews. Gathering the plants at the right time, drying them-macerating them-all the rest of it. I’ve even dropped to superstition sometimes and gathered my roots at the full of the moon or whatever it was the ancients advised. On that day I gave my guests, I remember, a special disquisition on the spotted hemlock. It flowers biennially. You gather the fruits when they’re ripening, just before they turn yellow. Coniine, you know, is a drug that’s dropped out-I don’t believe there’s any official preparation of it in the last Pharmacop?ia-but I’ve proved the usefulness of it in whooping cough-and in asthma too, for that matter-’
‘You talked of all this in your laboratory?’
‘Yes, I showed them round-explained the various drugs to them-valerian and the way it attracts cats-one sniff at that was enough for them! Then they asked about deadly nightshade and I told them about belladonna and atropine. They were very much interested.’
‘They? What is comprised in that word?’
Meredith Blake looked faintly surprised as though he had forgotten that his listener had no first-hand knowledge of the scene.
‘Oh, the whole party. Let me see, Philip was there and Amyas, and Caroline, of course. Angela. And Elsa Greer.’
‘That was all?’
‘Yes-I think so. Yes, I am sure of it,’ Blake looked at him curiously. ‘Who else should there be?’
‘I thought perhaps the governess-’
‘Oh, I see. No, she wasn’t there that afternoon. I believe I’ve forgotten her name now. Nice women. Took her duties very seriously. Angela worried her a good deal I think.’
‘Why was that?’
‘Well, she was a nice kid, but she was inclined to run wild. Always up to something or other. Put a slug or something down Amyas’s back one day when he was hard at work painting. He went up in smoke. Cursed her up and down dale. It was after that that he insisted on this school idea.