the great vegetable blood purifier

One of the manuscript stories that didn't make it into the published On the Banks of Plum Creek is the tale of Ma's liver complaint and the doctor. According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ma was suddenly and violently ill with terrible pains in her side. She lay in bed, moaning, and Pa heated cloths to put on her side to ease the pain. Pa sent Laura to send Mr. Nelson to wire for the doctor to come from forty miles away, and when he got there, he had a fascinating (to Laura) gold watch and chain (Pa's watch was silver and his watch chain was braided leather), and he told Ma the problem was with her liver, so he left medicine for her to take.

I wonder: was that medicine made out of the roots of blue flags?

The Larger Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) is the "blue flag" of On the Banks of Plum Creek. A perennial blue-purple native iris that grows in shallow water and wet soil, it is found throughout Minnesota. Although only mentioned in passing in the manuscript, Wilder went into great detail describing the blue flags for publication; they were said to have three velvety petals that turned down like a lady's dress over hoops, with three silky petals standing up in the center and curving together. They were new every morning, and the dried tuberous roots had long been used to purify the blood.

In the mid-18th century, a popular patent medicine was Irisin, said to be the most powerful, safe, and reliable remedy known for the healing of man. It acted
directly on the blood, cleansing and purifying the vital current of all the humors and taints of disease, from rheumatism and gout - to diseases of women - to liver and kidney complaints. Click on the Irisin image to open the full newspaper advertisement.

Maybe the doctor dosed Ma with it. At any rate, Ma's skin eventually stopped being so yellow, and she got well. And if she was sick while the blue flags were in bloom, let's hope that Mary and Laura picked some for Ma's bedside.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:30 PM