Historical label: “Polypus” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: polyps. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with polyp OR "nasal polyp" OR polyps. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
A growth of flesh in the nostril that in time blocks the breath through it; Cuckow-point’s sentence makes it a sore as well. Culpeper gives the definition himself.
What the entries treat
Four claims, all for the nose. Cuckow-point “heals the stinking sores in the nose, called Polypus”; Dragons “consumes cankers, and that flesh growing in the nostrils, which they call Polypus”; Nettles’ seed or leaves bruised and put into the nostrils “takes away the flesh growing in them called polypus”; Polypody “cures the disease called Polypus, which is a piece of flesh growing therein, which in time stops the passage of breath through that nostril”.
Where the word comes from
Latin polypus, Greek polúpous, from polús “many” and poús “foot”; English polyp is the same word (a doublet). The medical sense is on record from the 14th century; the same word named the octopus and other tentacled creatures, a sense now obsolete.
Today’s words
nasal polyp; polyp — the modern term names the same thing.
How it reads today
The same word, shortened to polyp: “an abnormal growth protruding from a mucous membrane”. Nasal polyps today are “noncancerous growths within the nose or sinuses” whose symptoms include “trouble breathing through the nose”, which is what Polypody’s sentence describes.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “polypus” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Latin polypus, Ancient Greek πολύπους, doublet of polyp; sense “(medicine) a polyp”, from 14th c.; sense “(obsolete) a tentacled cephalopod, such as an octopus, squid, or cuttlefish”, 16th–19th c. Wiktionary, s.v. “polyp” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Latin polypus “a polyp, a polypus in the nose”, Ancient Greek πολύς “many” + πούς “foot”; sense “(medicine) an abnormal growth protruding from a mucous membrane”. Wikipedia, “Nasal polyp” (accessed 2026-10-28): “Nasal polyps are noncancerous growths within the nose or sinuses”; “Symptoms include trouble breathing through the nose, loss of smell, decreased taste, post nasal drip, and a runny nose”.
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.
4 claims: 4 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone
and applied also to the nose, cures the disease called Polypus, which is a piece of flesh growing therein, which in time stops the passage of breath through that nostril;