In the newspaper this morning, GP if anyone's interested, there's an article about a rare flower that is now blooming in the park. it says as follows: "the flower is shaped like a featus...//... it is commonly used for abortion or to start births when this doesn't happen naturally." I just couldn't let that pass. :roll:
Ah, that's based on the assumption that if something (a plant) has a familiar shape then it can be used as a medicine for an illness related to that. Can't find the word right now.
For starters, it is easy for a flower to be shaped like a fetus. Hell, some right wing whacko in America said that Katrina was shaped like a fetus in order to punish NO for all the abortions going on there. It is probably mimicking oxytocin, or other muscle-contracting chemical signal.
good, someone understood at last. Though now comes the next question, why post this on a terry practhett board?
Because PTerry referred to the "Doctrine of Sugnatures", as it is sometimes called, in, I believe, severeal books, Witch books among them as far as I remember, thus introducing it into the Discworld medicine also. I seem to remember that he illustrates it with a plant with a nose-shaped bloom, said to cure running noses and colds, but I may be suffering from inventive memory here. Edit. wrong word
I agree. There are a number of different herbs that can cause contractions, so someone used their imagination and saw the shape of the fetus in the flowers of this one.
It's mentioned in Men At Arms when Nobby and Colon find a body under the bridge. (Trying not to give spoilers.)
Doctrine of Signatures, Dats der bunny! Ah yes, I think he mentiones it in Hat full of Sky also. Relevance... impressive my dear!
I think it was in Hat Full of Sky that the plants not only were shaped appropriately, but they also had directions written on them, if you knew where and how to look. Like, "use only as directed".
