Historical label: “Skin, (to clear)” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”. Shown as “Skin (to clear)”.
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 clear complexion: freckles, spots, “morphew” and scurf taken off the skin. A heading about looks rather than illness; Vervain’s “fistulas” stray in.
What the entries treat
Three claims, two of them the same sentences as under Scurf (CND-0115). Cuckow-point’s roots distilled with milk yield “a most sovereign water to cleanse the skin from scurf, freckles, spots, or blemishes whatsoever therein”; Madder’s leaves and roots applied to “any part that is discoloured with freckles, morphew, the white scurf, or any such deformity of the skin, cleanses thoroughly, and takes them away”; Vervain’s leaves bruised, or the juice with vinegar, “doth wonderfully cleanse the skin, and takes away morphew, freckles, fistulas, and other such like inflamations and deformities of the skin in any parts of the body”.
Today’s words
(none; search aids only) clear skin; freckles; blemishes; dark spots (hyperpigmentation); complexion — no modern condition corresponds; the words are search aids only.
How it reads today
Reads as it did: the wish for clear skin and the freckle are unchanged. “Morphew” means a blemish or mark on the skin, and “scurf” has narrowed to dandruff (CND-0115). No condition stands behind the heading, freckles not being a disease; medicine’s nearest word for a dark patch is hyperpigmentation, so the words offered are search aids.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “morphew” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Medieval Latin morphea; sense “a blemish or mark on the skin, especially a blister caused by scurvy”.
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.
3 claims: 3 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone
Cuckow-PointArum maculatumCLM-0024051850 index, p. 218
The fresh roots bruised and distilled with a little milk, yields a most sovereign water to cleanse the skin from scurf, freckles, spots, or blemishes whatsoever therein.
The leaves and roots beaten and applied to any part that is discoloured with freckles, morphew, the white scurf, or any such deformity of the skin, cleanses thoroughly, and takes them away.
VervainVerbena officinalisCLM-0024061850 index, p. 246
The leaves bruised, or the juice of them mixed with some vinegar, doth wonderfully cleanse the skin, and takes away morphew, freckles, fistulas, and other such like inflamations and deformities of the skin in any parts of the body.