Historical label: “Consumption” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: tuberculosis. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with tuberculosis OR "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" OR antitubercular OR cachexia. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
A wasting away of the body, and in most sentences the wasting disease of the lungs, with a long cough, laboured breath and blood spat up. “Phthisic” (phthisis) is the same thing by its Greek name, and the two words stand side by side.
What the entries treat
23 claims: 22 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone. A wasting of the body, “consumption of the lungs” above all, with cough, “shortness of breath” and blood spat up: Plantain “for those that are troubled with the phthisic, or consumption of the lungs, or ulcers of the lungs”; Sage’s juice “doth presently stay the spitting or casting of blood of them that are in a consumption”; Saffron “helps consumptions of the lungs, and difficulty of breathing”. Its cause, in these sentences, is the “thin rheum” that runs from the head onto the lungs: Polypody for “those distillations of thin rheum upon the lungs, which cause phthisicks, and oftentimes consumptions”; Rosa Solis for “a salt rheum distilling on their lungs, which breeds a consumption”; Poppy to stay the “continual cough, the fore-runner of a consumption”. The wasting itself is fed: Borage “to comfort the heart and spirits of those that are in a consumption”; Brank Ursine “restores radical moisture to such as are in consumptions”; Cabbages “helps those that are entering into a consumption”; Dandelion for whoever is “drawing towards a consumption or an evil disposition of the whole body, called Cachexia”. Pine-Nuts is an index name the book has no entry for.
Where the word comes from
Latin cōnsūmptiō, from cōnsūmō “take up, consume”, through Old French consumpcion and Middle English consumpcioun. Phthisis is Greek phthísis “consumption, decline, wasting away”, from phthíō “to waste away”. Cachexia is Greek kakhexía, kakós “bad” + héxis “state of body”, and Wiktionary’s first quotation for it is Culpeper himself, 1652.
Today’s words
tuberculosis (pulmonary TB); wasting disease; cachexia (for the “evil disposition of the whole body”) — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
Consumption is the old name of tuberculosis, and medicine keeps it only as history: TB is a bacterial infection (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that “initially infects the lungs” and wastes the body. But the old name was given for the wasting, not the germ, and the dictionary’s dated sense is “Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting”, so some of Culpeper’s consumptions were other long lung diseases; the text does not let us sort them. The “thin rheum” running from the head to the lungs is the old physiology of catarrh, not a cause medicine knows.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “consumption” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Latin cōnsūmptiō, from cōnsūmō (con- ‘with, together’ + sūmō ‘take; consume’), through Old French consumpcion, Middle English consumpcioun; senses “(pathology) Wasting away of the human body through disease” and “(pathology, dated) Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting, such as lung infections”, quotations 1763 Foote, 1811 Austen “in the last stage of a consumption”. Wiktionary, s.v. “phthisis” (accessed 2026-10-28): “Borrowed from Latin phthisis, from Ancient Greek φθίσις (phthísis, ‘consumption, decline, wasting away’), from φθίω (phthíō, ‘to waste away’)”; “(archaic) An atrophy of the body or part of the body, especially pulmonary tuberculosis”. Wiktionary, s.v. “cachexia” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Late Latin cachexia or French cachexie, from Ancient Greek καχεξία (kakhexía), κακός (kakós, ‘bad; injurious’) + ἕξις (héxis, ‘habit or state of body’); “A systemic wasting of muscle tissue … that accompanies a chronic disease”; first quotation 1652, Nicholas Culpeper, “which the Greeks call Καχεξία, Cachexia”. Wikipedia, “Tuberculosis” (accessed 2026-10-28): “is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria”; “Tuberculosis initially infects the lungs, but it can also spread to other parts of the body”; known “historically as consumption”; other names “Phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, consumption, white death, great white plague”.
ThinkDeep333, 2026-10-28 · draft, not yet checked. Offered beside Culpeper’s heading, never in its place; nothing here says whether a plant works.
Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.
23 claims: 22 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone
The flowers candied or made into a conserve, are helpful in the former cases, but are chiefly used as a cordial, and are good for those that are weak in long sickness, and to comfort the heart and spirits of those that are in a consumption, or troubled with often swoonings, or passions of the heart.
And whoever is drawing towards a consumption or an evil disposition of the whole body, called Cachexia, by the use hereof for some time together, shall find a wonderful help.
A decoction of the dried herb, with the seed, or the juice of the green herb taken with honey, is a remedy for those that are short-winded, have a cough, or are fallen into a consumption, either through long sickness, or thin distillations of rheum upon the lungs.
Liquorice boiled in fair water, with some Maiden-hair and figs, makes a good drink for those that have a dry cough or hoarseness, wheezing or shortness of breath, and for all the griefs of the breast and lungs, phthisic or consumptions caused by the distillation of salt humours on them.
thereby not only easing pains in the head and teeth, but also hinders the distilling of the brain upon the lungs and eyes, thereby preventing coughs, phthisicks and consumption, the apoplexy and falling sickness.
It is held an especial remedy for those that are troubled with the phthisic, or consumption of the lungs, or ulcers of the lungs, or coughs that come of heat.
and with some sugar-candy dissolved therein, is good against the cough, shortness of breath, and wheezings, and those distillations of thin rheum upon the lungs, which cause phthisicks, and oftentimes consumptions.
The garden Poppy heads with seeds made into a syrup, is frequently, and to good effect used to procure rest, and sleep, in the sick and weak, and to stay catarrhs and defluxions of thin rheums from the head into the stomach and lungs, causing a continual cough, the fore-runner of a consumption;
Rose Solis is accounted good to help those that have a salt rheum distilling on their lungs, which breeds a consumption, and therefore the distilled water thereof in wine is held fit and profitable for such to drink, which water will be of a good yellow colour.
The dried leaves shred small, and taken in a pipe, as tobacco is taken, helps those that have any cough, phthisic, or consumption, by warming and drying the thin distillations which cause those diseases.
Three spoonfuls of the juice of Sage taken fasting, with a little honey, doth presently stay the spitting or casting of blood of them that are in a consumption.
The root boiled, and eaten with oil and vinegar, (or without oil) do much please and warm old and cold stomachs oppressed with wind or phlegm, or those that have the phthisic or consumption of the lungs.
The powder mixed with pure honey is no less available for all sorts of coughs or colds, wheesing, or shortness of breath, distillations of thin rheum upon the lungs, which causes consumptions.