Historical label: “Palsies” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: palsy. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with paralysis OR stroke OR Parkinson OR tremor OR neuroprotective. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
Loss of power or feeling in a part, with “tremblings” and “numbness” (the Bay tree’s words). Culpeper files it with the convulsive and the “cold” diseases of the head and nerves, not as one disease.
What the entries treat
8 claims, every one a list: palsies beside convulsions, cramps, the falling-sickness and the apoplexy, and among the “cold” diseases. Briony “is therefore good for palsies, convulsions, cramps, and stitches in the sides, and the dropsy”; Cowslips for “infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes, false apparitions, phrensies, falling-sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains in the nerves”; Germander “against all diseases of the brain, as continual head-ache, falling-sickness, melancholy, drowsiness and dullness of the spirits, convulsions and palsies”; Lavender for the griefs of the head and brain “that proceed of a cold cause, as the apoplexy, falling-sickness, the dropsy, or sluggish malady, cramps, convulsions, palsies, and often faintings”; the Bay tree’s oil “helps palsies, convulsions, cramp, aches, tremblings, and numbness in any part”; Juniper berries “excellently good for all palsies, and falling-sickness”; Ground Pine for the diseases of the joints “as gouts, cramps, palsies, sciatica, and aches”; Woodbine “helps cramps, convulsions, and palsies, and whatsoever griefs come of cold or stopping”.
Where the word comes from
Middle English palesie, from Anglo-Norman paralisie, from Latin paralysis, from Greek parálusis, from paralúō “to disable on one side”: the same word as paralysis by another road (a doublet).
Today’s words
paralysis; palsy (kept in Bell’s palsy and cerebral palsy); weakness or numbness of a limb; tremor (for the “tremblings”) — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
The dictionary’s definition of palsy, “complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking”, covers what Culpeper lists, from a stroke’s palsy (see Apoplexy, CND-0010) to shaking and numbness, and the text does not say which. The “cold cause” is the humours.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “palsy” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Middle English palesie, Anglo-Norman paralisie, Latin paralysis, Ancient Greek παράλυσις, παραλύω “to disable on one side”, παρα- “beside” + λύω “loosen”, doublet of paralysis; sense “(pathology) complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking”.
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.
8 claims: 8 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone
they remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes, false apparitions, phrensies, falling-sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, pains in the nerves;
It is also good against all diseases of the brain, as continual head-ache, falling-sickness, melancholy, drowsiness and dullness of the spirits, convulsions and palsies.
The decoction of the herb in wine taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, or both, for some time together, is also effectual in all pains and diseases of the joints, as gouts, cramps, palsies, sciatica, and aches;
LavenderLavandula angustifoliaCLM-0013481850 index
Lavender is of a special good use for all the griefs and pains of the head and brain that proceed of a cold cause, as the apoplexy, falling-sickness, the dropsy, or sluggish malady, cramps, convulsions, palsies, and often faintings.
The oil made of the berries is very comfortable in all cold griefs of the joints, nerves, arteries, stomach, belly, or womb, and helps palsies, convulsions, cramp, aches, tremblings, and numbness in any part, weariness also, and pains that come by sore travelling.
besides, it takes away the evil of the spleen, provokes urine, procures speedy delivery of women in travail, helps cramps, convulsions, and palsies, and whatsoever griefs come of cold or stopping;