Medicine: Tea for Two

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When old wives' recipes are recognized by doctors, many a skeptical layman feels cheered up. Last week the British Lancet brought such cheerful news to U.S. readers : that it is quite possible that raspberry leaves "boyled in water, fastneth the teeth and loosneth the babies."

The old recipe for making childbearing easy had finally been given a scientific once-over by two experimenters: Dr. J. H. Burn and Pharmacologist E. R. Withell. In a series of delicate experiments, they tried raspberry-leaf tea on a number of cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits. Results: in almost every case the brew relaxed the uterus, stopped muscular contractions. The scientists agreed that the tea would probably be valuable in relieving painful menstruation. The dosage recommended by herbalists, they said, is 10 to 20 oz. of hot tea made from 1 oz. of dried leaves* steeped in 20 oz. of boiling water. The tea tastes and smells like black tea.

About the use in childbirth the scientists were skeptical. They considered it difficult to understand how a relaxed uterus would aid childbirth. On the contrary, it might possibly retard delivery by lack of propelling force.

But in the next issue of the Lancet, Dr. Violet Russell of London answered this theoretical objection from practical experience. Wrote she: "Somewhat shame facedly and surreptitiously I have encouraged any expectant mothers, who felt so inclined, to drink this infusion. ... In a good many cases in my own experience the subsequent labor has been easy and free from muscular spasm. . . . More labors are held up by muscular . . . tension than are delayed by muscular weak ness."