An Aztec Herbal

The Classic Codex of 1552

William Gates

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486411309
• eBook ISBN: 9780486140971
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History

"I love that this book is the real deal. A truly unique and informative read." — Texas Kitchen and Garden and More
Originally written in the Aztec language, Nahuatl, in 1552, this classic codex was the first herbal and medical text compiled in the New World. The author of this extraordinarily rare and valuable document was Martín de la Cruz, an Aztec physician, whose work was subsequently translated into Latin by an Aztec nobleman, Juan Badiano.
The book was translated into English in 1939 by William Gates. In these pages are centuries-old Aztec remedies for boils, hair loss, cataracts, insomnia, sore throats, hiccups, gout, lesions, wounds, joint diseases, tumors, and scores of other ailments. Over 180 black-and-white figures of the plants augment the text, along with 38 full color illustrations made specially for the Gates edition. Additional supplements include an introduction to the Mexican botanical system, an analytical index of the plants, and a new Introduction by anthropologist Bruce Byland of the City University of New York.
Remarkable for its scope, detail, careful observation, and accurate description, An Aztec Herbal stands as a magnificent example of the impressive medical knowledge of indigenous peoples. This handsome and inexpensive edition of a long-unavailable work promises to engender a new appreciation of the skill and inventiveness of Aztec medical practices in particular and of Native American science in general.

Analytical Index to Plants named in Herbal.

Aca-capac-quilitl, pleasing cane edible. Aganippea dentata, *p. 79.

Grows in the Canal de la Vega, near Mexico City. v. Sahagún, xi-7.8.20.

Acatl, cane. Arundo donax L. *p. 79.

There are various reedlike plants, including edible ones, growing in or by water. Note the identical root forms on all four plants on p. 79, and also the similarity of the reedlike stalks for this and the next number.

A-chilli, water chile. *p. 65.

While there is no actual identification of this with the Salvia chian from which was made the refreshing drink so universally had during Holy Week, yet our sources, taken in parallel, strongly suggest it. First, Sahagún, discussing the achilli at xi-7.5.86, speaks of “ this chian ”; further, the Madrid Hernández, i-270, speaks of the achilton, or small achilli, as having the synonym piltzin-tecouh-xochit /; and then, our present section of the Badiano prescribing a number of aromatics, gives us in succession wormwood, mountain chian, and a-chilli, and just below piltzin-tecouh-xochitl.

Acocotli, or Acoco-xihuitl, aesophagus or ‘ suction pipe ’; cumin. Arracacia atropurpurea, *p. 94, 10a.

The acocotli was used for sucking up the gathered juice of the maguey for making pulque, and the cane-like divisions of the stalk are plainly shown in the illustration. Three illustrations of an acocotli plant are given at Hern. 31, none resembling this in any way.

Robelo quotes Molina as to the above use of the stalk, and then gives it as being cumin or Arracacia atropurpurea, followed here by the Ph. Mex. and then by Martínez, all giving it as stimulant and carminative, which the two paragraphs in Sahagún fairly support.

Acxoyatl, a balsam. Abies religiosa, *p. 95, 10b.

The picture at Hern. 348 quite agrees with the one here in showing it as being of the Pine family.

Ahquiztli. Save for the picture at *p. 74, and its association with the long list of plants prescribed for a fever, 9b, no guide at hand.

Ahuatl, oak. Quercus castanea L. Quercus insignis. 8-1.

The Latin word Quercus is quite regularly used in the text, instead of the Aztec.

We also have an Ahuat/-tepiton, small oak, at *p. 88, but not repeated in the text. At p. 211 Hernández illustrates the Ahuaton or Quercus parva, with the synonym Tlal-capulin; also Sahagún gives us these same synonyms, at xi-7.5.49; also the term ava-quavitl at xi-6.2.8; and at xi-6.2.8 ava-tetzmolli as the holm oak.

A-huehuetl, water-growing cypress. Cupressus Montezuma, or Taxodium mucronatum.

This also is only referred to by its Latin name, but its fame is such as to merit the following quotation from Standley:

“ The largest individual reported is the famous one of Tule, near Oaxaca; its height is 38.6 meters and the girth 51.8 meters; the greatest trunk diameter is 12 meters, and the spread of the branches 51.8 meters. The Cypress of Moctezuma at Chapultepec was a noted tree four centuries ago, and its actual age estimated at 700 years; others have attained much greater periods.

“‘The tree has been long used for its acrid resin, curative of ulcers, toothache, gout; also as diuretic and resolutive and a pectoral.”

Ahuiyac, adj. Agreeable; used with xihuitl, plant, 8k, *p. 107; also tlatlanquaye, pepper, *p. 73, *83.

Amatl, fig-tree; wood used for paper. Ficus nymphaefolia L.

Xiuh-amolli, soap plant. Saponaria americana, *p. 11, 1e.

A small plant whose root yields a glutinous lather and supplies an excellent soap. Note the use of xiuh-as prefix, instead of a terminal xihuitl, to mark particularly its smallness and herbaceous character.

Amoxtli, paper plant or rush; also name for paper, book, etc.

We only have this as te-amoxtli, or a papyrus reed growing on stony ground; the illustrations at pp. 7, 29, and that of the small or tepitonte-amoxtli all show the marshy bottom. This marshy base is also seen with the teo-iztaquilitl, *p. 3, or Portulaca oleracea L, growing in “ red earth,” at 5f as growing in a stone-filled marsh. With these also note the marshy base of the xiuh-tlemaitl on p. 85. (See these latter in their places.) The te-amoxtli is prescribed seven times in the text passages, at 5d, 8b, 8f, 9f, 9p, 9q, 12b.

Paper made in ancient Mexico was of two kinds, one from the above papyrus, and the finer kind from the fig-tree, or Ficus petiolaris, illustrated by Hernández at p. 82 as the tepe-amatl, mountain fig, or texcal-amatl, rock-cavern fig. Specimens of this paper we still have in our few surviving codices, and it further gave its name to the sacred calendar-book the Tonalamatl .

Sahagún tells us that the tree is of the size of a peach, its leaves very green, and the bark smooth; when this bark grows old, “ they cut it off for the paper-making, whereon the tree puts on anew.”

The wood is yellowish, whence the further term amacoztic. Its medicinal value is as a pectoral.

A-quahuitl, water-tree. Illustrated at *p. 81, and prescribed in the text at 6d, 9i.

Not mentioned by Hernández, nor in our other sources at hand.

A-toch-ietl, literally ‘water-growing rabbit bean.’ *p. 24.

Hern. 1790 ed., pp. 148-50, gives four species, all aromatic, and being the flea-bane, Pulegium, or similar. One of these is given as curing colds and headache. Apparently pennyroyal.

Atoya-xocotl, ‘flowing-stream plum.’ Spondias mombin L. 1d, 10k.

Sahagún at xi-6.7.4 lists four plum or jocote varieties, calling them all xocoquahuitl , or bitter tree; first are the yellow or red manzanillas, with white centers, called te-xocotl; then the maza-xocotl, or ‘ deer plums,’ red or yellow; then the “ large plum ciruelas called atoya-xocotl, sweet and savory, good to eat raw or cooked. They make a pulque of these that is more intoxicating than that from honey; all the plums have large pits.” Finally the guavas, the xal-xocotl or ‘ sand-plums.’

The modern Farm. Mex. assigns no medicinal value, but Hern., 1790 ed. iii, 355, gives a seven line paragraph describing the plum as being cooling, astringent, and of value in dysentery. The 1651 edition assigns the same qualities.

A-xocotl, ‘water plum.’ Spondias sp., *p. 80, 8-1, 10k. v. supra.

Ayauh-quahuitl, ‘misty cloud tree.’ ? Cupressus thurifera, *p. 91, 8b, 8f, 9f.

Quite probably the white cedar, as given by Siméon Dict.; the trees of this family are usually called in the Badiano text by their Latin names, Pinus, Cupressus.

Ayauhtli, cloud or mist; probably the above. 7b.

Ayecotli, large beans, haricots. Phaseolus multiflorus L, *p. 50.

Molina, Dict. gives it thus,...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Dover Edition
• PREFACE
• A LITTLE BOOK
• A Table of what is Contained Herein.
• CHAPTER FIRST: On the curation of the head, boils, scales or mange, coming out of the hair, lesions or broken skull.
• CHAPTER SECOND: Curation of the eyes, heat, the eyes bloodshot, cataract, stupor of the brows or rather lids, tumors, to bring on sleep, to avoid sleepiness.
• CHAPTER THIRD: on festering in the ears, and deafness or stoppage.
• CHAPTER FOURTH : on catarrh, medicine to be put into the nostrils, the blood-stanching plants.
• CHAPTER FIFTH: tooth-polish, curation of swelling and festering gums, aching and decaying teeth with much heat, tumors and suppuration of the throat, angina, medicine to ease pain in the gullet, to bring back saliva when dry, when the saliva comes bloody, to allay a cough, to stop foul and offensive breath.
• CHAPTER SIXTH: for cooling the heat of a swollen jaw, to cure one who cannot yawn for the pain, for scabs on the face or mouth, for scrofulous eruptions on the neck, dropsy, lameness or weakness of the hands.
• CHAPTER SEVENTH: on chest trouble, pain in the heart and heat, pain in the sides, medicine to kill worms and animalcula, antidote for poison, tumor of the stomach, pains in the abdomen, dysentery or griping, rumbling of the abdomen, chill, purging.
• CHAPTER EIGHTH: Curation of the pubis and groin, stoppage of the urine, difficulty in passing, affections of the rectum, gout, pain in the knees, the knees beginning to contract, remedy for cracks coming in the soles of the feet, lesions in the feet, against fatigue, trees and flowers to relieve lassitude in the administrators of the affairs of the state and the public business.
• CHAPTER NINTH: the remedy for black blood, fevers, haemorrhoids, rectal swellings, excessive heat, cuts on the body, ringworm and tetter, recurrent attacks of disease, skin eruptions, wounds, disease of the joints, itch, festering with worms, inflammations, difficult digestion, swelling in cut veins after phlebotomy, those struck by lightning.
• CHAPTER TENTH: on the falling sickness, or epilepsy, the remedy for fear or timidity, a mind unbalanced by a tornado or bad wind, warts, hircine armpit odor of sick people, phthirasis of lousy distemper, lice on the head, for a traveler crossing a river or water.
• CHAPTER ELEVENTH : remedies for recent parturition, the menses, lotion of the internal parts, childbirth, tubercles of the breast, medicine for increasing milk flow.
• CHAPTER TWELFTH: on boys’ skin eruptions, and when an infant refuses the breast because of some pain.
• CHAPTER THIRTEENTH: of certain signs of approaching death.
• Preface to the Analytical Index
• Analytical Index to Plants named in Herbal.