Printed in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases” as “—— (obstructions of)” under “Liver” (the dash stands for the heading above it, or its first word); shown here as “Liver — (obstructions of)”.
Modern literature has not yet been searched for this heading’s claims: it comes only from the 1850 index and has no search words yet.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
A stoppage of the liver’s working, undone by “opening” herbs; Culpeper’s standing explanation of jaundice and dropsy. No sentence here describes a blockage anyone could see.
What the entries treat
5 claims: 4 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone. Alexander “opens a stoppage of the liver and spleen”; Columbine seed in wine with saffron, on Tragus, “opens obstructions of the liver, and is good for the yellow jaundice, if the party after the taking thereof be laid to sweat well in bed”; Parsley “opens obstructions both of liver and spleen, and is therefore accounted one of the five opening roots”; Liverwort is “a singularly good herb for all the diseases of the liver, both to cool and cleanse it”. Rhubarb (Rephontic) is listed in the index (pp. 157, 225) with no sentence naming it. The parent heading carries many more sentences in the same words.
(none; search aids only) sluggish liver; liver congestion; bile duct obstruction (the false friend); obstructive jaundice — no modern condition corresponds; the words are search aids only.
How it reads today
A false friend. “Biliary obstruction” today is a blocked bile duct and a cause of jaundice; Culpeper’s “obstructions of the liver” are the humoral stoppage that his opening roots and diet-drinks undo, and no sentence describes a blockage. That his obstructed liver and gall bring on jaundice, as the blocked duct does, is our reading of an overlap, not a sense the text gives. The word reads the same under Bowels (obstructions of).
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.
5 claims: 4 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone
AlexanderSmyrnium olusatrumCLM-0023571850 index, p. 6
It is an herb of Jupiter, and therefore friendly to nature, for it warms a cold stomach, and opens a stoppage of the liver and spleen;
ColumbinesAquilegia vulgarisCLM-0023551850 index, p. 53
Tragus saith, that a dram of the seed taken in wine with a little saffron, opens obstructions of the liver, and is good for the yellow jaundice, if the party after the taking thereof be laid to sweat well in bed.
LiverwortMarchantia polymorphaCLM-0023561850 index, p. 107
It is a singularly good herb for all the diseases of the liver, both to cool and cleanse it, and helps the inflammations in any part, and the yellow jaundice likewise.