CHAPTER 19
ANTIQUE CANNABIS BOOK
HISTORICAL
CANNABIS MEDICINES
19.0 -- HEMP SEED OIL AS MEDICINE:
Although greatly over-shadowed by the "Flowering Top's" [the actual Medical Cannabis] of the Hemp plant. One should not overlook the fact that before 1937 (and well after that) Hemp seeds, of and by themselves, were used by physicians for a number of ailments. In fact, so many ailments, that it would be all but impossible to list them all.
Here are some examples:
Merck Index: -- The 1907 Merck Index (pp.132) lists that use of Cannabis seeds for emulsions to be used to relieve the effects of gonorrhea.
King's American Dispensatory: -- "Hemp seed, in infusion, has been found very useful in after-pains, and in the bearing down sensation accompanying prolapsus uteri. ---"King's American Dispensatory" (the bible of herbal medicines) 1909;
United States Dispensatory: -- "The seeds, though not now official, have been used in medicine. . . . when (hemp seed oil is) rubbed with water form an emulsion, which may be used advantageously in inflammations of the mucous membrane . . . ---1927 "U.S. Dispensatory (pp277)"
OK, the reader gets the general idea. Again, one could go on and on with examples of their medical uses, but in general most of conditions being treated (at least in western medicine) seem to be nutritional or inflammatory in nature. For obvious reasons, this book deliberately leaves out any conversation of nutrition which (with the exception of pellagra), is perhaps a subject that is best left to dieticians, gourmet chiefs and common horse sense.
However, it is interesting to note that hemp seed oil (as medicine) has a very long and distinguishing history.
EXAMPLE: - Today, the vast majority of Egyptologists agree that the "The Eber's Papyrus," (the earliest complete medical textbook known to exist), makes several references to hemp seed oil and its uses to treat inflammation.
19.1 -- PHARMACEUTICAL STORES:
Before 1937 (and even well after that date), it was common for pharmaceutical & druggist trade magazines to list the whole-sale prices of hemp seeds, right along with other herbs and medicines. And obviously they were being listed in these trade magazines for their medical NOT industrial value.
However, because hemp was also seen as an industrial crop, (the plant can also produce food and fiber products), hemp seeds were also sold and distributed by many non-medical sources, such as farm suppliers etc. And as there was technically nothing to prevent someone from using industrial hemp seeds for medical purposes, or medical hemp seeds for industrial purposes etc. Thus there seems to be more than a bit of confusion on the subject.
However due to the mission statement of this museum, we limit ourselves to medical and only medical uses. It merely must be pointed out that a great deal of confusion exists due to hemp's industrial uses.
But in any case the price of Hemp seeds at any given time could easily be asserted from any of the numerous trade magazines that catered to the pharmaceutical and druggist trades.
Pharmaceutical Era (Blue book)1901 pp15
Druggist Circular (Red book) 1912 pp81
S.B. Penick (Medical) Price & Product Catalog 1940 pp22 - Sterilized seeds
