Historical label: “Memory, (to strengthen)” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”. Shown as “Memory (to strengthen)”.
Modern reading: memory. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with memory OR cognition OR nootropic OR Alzheimer. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
Memory as a faculty of the brain that can be weak and be made strong by warming and “quickening” the senses (Sage’s words): one of the cold head complaints, under Mercury in one entry.
What the entries treat
10 claims: 9 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone. The complaint is “a weak memory”: Rosemary “helps a weak memory, and quickens the senses”; Eyebright “helps a weak brain, or memory”; Lily of the Valley, under Mercury, “strengthens the brain, recruits a weak memory, and makes it strong again”; Sage “is of excellent use to help the memory, warming and quickening the senses”; Juniper berries “strengthen the brain exceedingly, help the memory, and fortify the sight”; Mellilot “to strengthen the memory, to comfort the head and brain”; Asarabacca in a warm lye, the head washed with it, “comforts the head and brain that is ill affected by taking cold, and helps the memory”; Mint smelled to “is comfortable for the head and memory”; Carduus Benedictus “strengthens the memory” by antipathy to Venus. Olibanum is an index name the book has no entry for.
Where the word comes from
Latin memoria, from memor “mindful, remembering”, through Anglo-Norman memorie.
Today’s words
forgetfulness; poor memory; memory loss (which medicine names by cause: mild cognitive impairment, dementia); (search aids) nootropic, brain health — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
A weak memory is a complaint today too, and the modern names run from everyday forgetfulness to mild cognitive impairment and dementia, sorted by cause, which the heading does not do. The “to strengthen” part is the humoral tonic idea, warming a cold brain, and the brain sentences read best under Brain (to strengthen). “Nootropic” and “brain health” are where a reader meets the idea now, in marketing.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “memory” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Anglo-Norman memorie, Old French memoire, Latin memoria, from memor “mindful, remembering”; sense “The ability of the brain to record information or impressions with the facility of recalling them later, usually at will”.
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.
10 claims: 9 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone
The leaves and roots being boiled in lye, and the head often washed therewith while it is warm, comforts the head and brain that is ill affected by taking cold, and helps the memory.
By antipathy to Venus, who governs it, it strengthens the memory, and cures deafness by antipathy to Saturn, who has his fall in Aries, which rules the head.
Juniper BushJuniperus communisCLM-001333Not in 1652
They give safe and speedy delivery to women with child, they strengthen the brain exceedingly, help the memory, and fortify the sight by strengthening the optic nerves;
GOVERNMENT AND VIRTUES.] It is under the dominion of Mercury, and therefore it strengthens the brain, recruits a weak memory, and makes it strong again: