Historical label: “Whitlows” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: whitlow. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with paronychia OR felon OR "finger infection" OR abscess. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
A gathering of matter (an “imposthume”, an abscess) at a finger joint or under the nail. Culpeper gives four names for the one thing.
What the entries treat
2 claims: 2 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone. Nailwort, or Whitlow-grass, is named for it: “those imposthumes in the joints, and under the nails, which they call Whitlows, Felons, Andicorns and Nail-wheals”; Briony root applied with a little wine “breaks boils, and helps whitlows on the joints”.
Where the word comes from
Late Middle English, an alteration of whitflaw, Wiktionary says: the first part from Middle Dutch vijt or Low German fit, “abscess”, borrowed from Latin fīcus, a fig-shaped ulcer, and the whole reshaped by “white”. Felon, the second of Culpeper’s names, is from Middle English feloun, a carbuncle or pus-filled sore, possibly through Old French, from Latin fel, “bile, gall”.
Today’s words
whitlow; felon (infection of the fingertip pulp); paronychia (infection of the skin round the nail); finger abscess — a broad match: the heading covers more than this, or several modern things.
How it reads today
The word is still medicine’s, and the mapping is broad because Culpeper’s one word covers what medicine now sorts apart (our reading). Today paronychia is the infection of the skin around the nail, a felon or whitlow the infection of the fingertip pulp beneath it, and Wikipedia notes the two are often confused; a herpetic whitlow is a third thing, a herpes lesion on a finger. Culpeper’s “imposthumes in the joints” read as the abscess at a finger joint (our reading). “Andicorn” and “nail-wheal” are not in Wiktionary; the only gloss we have is his, that they are the whitlow by other names. Felons of the Finger is its own heading in the index.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “whitlow” (accessed 2026-10-28): “From Late Middle English, an alteration of whitflaw, with the first element deriving either from Middle Dutch vijt or Low German fit (“abscess”), borrowed from Latin fīcus (“fig-shaped (ulcer)”), though also influenced by white”; sense “Inflammation and/or infection in the cuticle and/or the nailbed of a fingernail or toenail”; synonym felon, near-synonyms paronychia and onychia. Wiktionary, s.v. “felon” (accessed 2026-10-28): etymology 2, Middle English feloun, felone, a carbuncle or pus-filled sore, possibly from Old French, ultimately from Latin fel “bile, gall”; sense “(pathology) A small infected sore; an abscess, a boil”, often specifically “a whitlow”. Wikipedia, “Paronychia” (accessed 2026-10-28): “Paronychia is an inflammation of the skin around the nail, often due to bacteria or fungi”; “commonly mistakenly used interchangeably with herpetic whitlow or felon, which are distinct conditions”; “Whitlow or felon is a subcutaneous infection of the digital pulp space”. Wikipedia, “Herpetic whitlow” (accessed 2026-10-28): “a herpes lesion (whitlow), typically on a finger or thumb, caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV)”.
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.
2 claims: 2 with a sentence, 0 from the index alone
and being applied with a little wine mixed therewith, it breaks boils, and helps whitlows on the joints.—For all these latter, beginning at sores, cancers, &c.
It is held to be exceedingly good for those imposthumes in the joints, and under the nails, which they call Whitlows, Felons, Andicorns and Nail-wheals.