Rabbit & Hare
Gart der Gesundheit, Cuba, 1485
Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563
Thierbuch Das ist ein kurtze beschreybung aller vierfüssigen Thieren, Gesner, 1583Zoological name:
Leporidae is the Rabbit and Hare family.
Lepus timidus is the Hare; Oryctolagus cuniculus (syn. Lepus cuniculus) is the European Rabbit; others are used.
Parts used:
The Hare was generally preferred in medicine.
Various parts have been used, especially Meat, Heart, Brain, Kidneys, Uterus etc.
Rabbit Heart is an important medicine in Tibetan Medicine.
Uses:
ANKLE BONES (from the forefoot of a hare):
1. powdered and taken with wine, powerfully promotes urine.
2. Carried or taken for cramp (traditionally used as a charm). (West)
BILE (Cold, Bitter):
1. Clears Heat and Poison from the Heart and Liver:
-Liver heat conditions including Epidemic Fevers, Jaundice, Spasms, Convulsions etc.
-‘the Gall [Bile] drunken with vinegar is good for poisoning and venom’.
2. Clears Heat, Calms the Mind:
-insomnia (taken in wine), madness, frenzy, and Melancholy (West).
-Epilepsy.
3. Clears Heat, Benefits the Eyesight:
-poor or failing sight, Blindness, Webs in the Eye.
-Deafness (topically)
4. Moves the Blood:
-in pessaries to promote Conception, expel a Dead Child, or promote Menstruation. (Magic of Kirani)
5. Bear Bile Substitute:
-Recent research has shown Rabbit Bile to be useful and effective as a substitute for Bear Bile.
BLOOD (Cool. Salty):
1. Cools the blood, Moves the Blood:
-difficult labor.
-Taken with tea powder and Frankincense for Angina Pectoris. (TCM)
2. Resists Poison:
-Taken in wine, it is Alexipharmic (Salmon)
-Blood is used in Unani for Bilious Remittent Fevers.
-The ashes of the blood and skin is used for Bloody Fluxes, Dysentery
3. Clears Stones:
-ashes of the Blood was used for Stones;
-Fioravanti (1659) and others said the powder “helps those much” who have Gravel and Stones.
4. Externally:
i. “Its blood applied hot, perfectly cures Gouty feet. applied hot to the loins, it cures the Stone in the Kidneys”. (Magic of Kirani)
ii. Applied warm cures Sunspots, Vitiligines, Lentigines (Dioscorides)
iii. applied to Freckles (Avicenna)
iv. The warm blood of a Hare, steeped in cloth and the cloth dried is applied externally over an Erysipelas; “An odd and often tried medicine”. (Medicinal Experiments, R. Boyle, 1696)
NOTE: Albertus said if a woman drinks Hares blood, she will never conceive.
BONES:
1. As a broth to relieve the thirst of Fevers; used for for Thirst, Emaciation, and constant Urination (Diabetes).
2. “The little bone of the knee joint of a Hares hinder leg, doth presently help the cramp, if you do but touch the grieved place with it”. (Culpeper)
3. “Take the Heel of a Hare and carry it about you, and the sudden Colic shall never take you”. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615)
4. Ground with vinegar and applied to chronic scabies and ulcers (TCM).
BRAINS (roasted and powdered):
1. Warms and Strengthens the Kidneys:
-Incontinence and for Urinary retention. (West)
2. Strengthens Yang, Benefits the Brain (West, Tibetan):
-Trembling, including that from Fear; Convulsions, Epilepsy.
-Taken in wine, it is good for Lethargy and oversleeping, as well as Paralysis (Dioscorides).
-in Tibetan medicine for Mental diseases, Paralysis and wind disease affecting the Mind and Spirit.
3. Promotes Labor:
-Promotes labor, and for difficult Labor. (TCM)
4. Externally (TCM, West)
-powder rubbed on the gums makes children’s teething easier. (Avicenna)
-helps Scald Heads, and falling and thinning of the Hair, when the head is anointed.
-Applied to cracked skin of the hands or feet.
5. Resists Poison:
-as an antidote to Poisons. (Salmon)
DOSE: Of the Brain powdered: 300mg–1.5 grams;
DUNG (Neutral, Pungent):
1. Promotes Urine, Clears Stones:
-Hares dung has been given for incontinence (Riverius)
-dung dissolved in warm wine cures desperate Sciatica and Colic pains.
-‘Beaten with Pepper and drunk, it cures the stone in the Kidneys’ (Magic of Kirani).
2. Clears Heat and Toxin (West, TCM):
-fevers and various toxins.
-Hyperemia (TCM).
4. Kills Worms.
-intestinal parasites (TCM)
5. Externally:
-Mixed with Vinegar and applied to make hair grow (West);
-Clears the Vision; used for corneal opacity and films in TCM.
DOSE: Of the Dried Dung in Decoction: 3–9 grams.
FAT:
1. Used externally as other Fats; also applied to Frost Bite.
2. The Fat of a Hare was applied to draw out Thorns.
FEET (Ashed):
1. Used for excessive menstruation.
GENITALS (Testes and Penis):
1. Warms and Strengthens the Kidneys:
-Boiled in sweet wine and drank for incontinence (Mizald);
-Diabetes, to strengthen the bladder, and to promote Conception. (Salmon)
HEAD (burnt to ashes):
1. Burnt head, taken with vinegar for 3 days after menstruation was traditionally reported to cause sterility.
2. Burnt head was taken to cure fluxes of the womb and belly. (Dioscorides)
3. Epilepsy and Shaking Palsy (Parkinsonism). (Dioscorides, Wirtzung)
4. Taken with vinegar, it is good against Poison. (Dioscorides)
5. Applied with vinegar topically to cure Alopecia. (Dioscorides)
HEART (Powdered, and taken in wine):
1. Used for Epilepsy and pain of the womb (Galen, Salmon)
2. in Tibetan formulas for Mental and Nervous diseases including Insanity and Paralysis, Parkinson’s disease etc.
DOSE: Of the Heart powdered: 300mg–1.5 grams;
KIDNEYS:
1. Used the same as the Testicles; used for Incontinence. (Magic of Kirani, Wirtzung, Salmon)
DOSE: Of the Dried and Powdered Kidney: 1–3 grams;
LIVER (Dried and Powdered):
1. Strengthens the Liver:
-stopped or obstructed Liver, Liver diseases and weakness.
-Clears the vision, used for Vertigo from a bad liver.
2. dried and powdered, was given for ‘Hysterical Vapors’ and ‘Fits of the Mother’. (Medicinal Experiments, R. Boyle, 1696)
DOSE: Of the Dried and Powdered Liver: 1–3 grams;
MEAT (Rabbit was regarded as the best of all Wild Meats; Neutral/Slightly Warm, Acrid):
Used in Ayurveda to Calm Bile and Phlegm, and is said to moderate Wind
1. Tonifies Qi:
-Good for extreme thirst, emaciation (diabetes etc);
-Strengthens the Spleen (TCM)
-nourishes as much as Venison
-used to generate Warmth and Stop Diarrhea (Tibetan Medicine).
-‘Singularly praised in Physic’ (Culpeper).
2. Clears Wind-Damp:
-Arthritis and Rheumatism in TCM;
-‘The broth of a Hare is good for Gout and Joint pain’. (Salmon)
3. Clears Heat, Resists Poison:
-cools the Blood, Relieves Toxic Fevers. (TCM)
PANCREAS:
1. Used as a styptic for diarrhea.
RENNET:
Regarded as the best Rennet
1. Resists Poison:
-“Antidote and Bezoar for Poison” (Avicenna)
-Bloody Fluxes and Dysentery (Mizald);
-dissolved with Propolis is applied to poisonous Stings and Venomous bites (Magic of Kirani)
2. Dissolves Congealed Blood:
-Epilepsy (with Honey and Vinegar)
-It dissolves thick humors and has been used for Cancers (Salmon, others)
3. Promotes Conception:
-as a pessary to promote Conception.
DOSE: 1–3 grams;
SKIN and FUR (ashed):
1. Promotes Labor:
-Given with wine for difficult labour, to expel the placenta, and severe conditions from retained blood, especially Postpartum. (TCM)
2. Promotes Urine, Expels Stones:
-Hare’s Hair burnt promotes Urine, expels Gravel and Stone and ease Pain. (The Secrets of Alexis, 1615);
-a whole Hare or Rabbit burnt to ashes in a sealed pot has the same vertue
-The ashed fur is also used as a diuretic in TCM.
3. Used for Lethargy:
-“The whole skin of a Hare, with ears and nails burnt, and the powder of it given by a Quill, perfectly cures people of a Lethargy” (Magic of Kirani).
4. Externally:
-Applied to Frost Bite.
-“Its down burnt and powdered, and strewed upon burnt places, cleanses the Ulcers, heals the Scars, and fetches the Hair again. And applied with the white of an Egg, it stops any flux of Blood”. (Magic of Kirani)
DOSE: 1–3 grams; 3 spoonfuls in wine for Gravel
SKULL (Sour, Sweet. Ashed):
1. Used for Vertigo, Headache, and Delirium.
2. Ashed with the skin to expel the Placenta and the blood retained after Childbirth. (TCM)
3. The ashed skull is also given for childhood dysentery. (TCM)
STOMACH:
1. Used for Fluxes (Diarrhea); “strengthen the stomach exceedingly”.
TESTICLES
1. “provoke venerous acts”. (Fioravanti, 1659)
2. “Helps Conception” (Salmon)
3. Diabetes, Incontinence
DOSE: Of the Dried and Powdered Testicles: 1–3 grams;
UTERUS (Dried and Powdered):
1. Helps a female to conceive. Said also to be an aphrodisiac for women. To promote conception, it is best taken after the period (Salmon). Galen listed the roasted Uterus of a Hare to aid conception.
WHOLE ANIMAL
1. Put into a closed vessel and ashed: some just baked it in an oven until dry enough to powder; Used for urinary Stones. (various)
Dose:
Whole Animal or Head or Skin and Fur burnt to ashes: 1–3 grams;
Prepared and powdered Liver, Kidneys, Pancreas, Testicles or Stomach: 1–3 grams in powder
Prepared and powdered Heart or Uterus: 300mg–1.5 grams
Blood in Powder: 1–3 grams
Rennet: 1–3 grams
Substitute:
White Sesame can replace Rabbit Brain (Tibet)
Main Combinations:
1. For Stones:
i. Blood of a Hare, Saxifrage root (3 oz.). Mix in an earthen pot and put in an oven until it can be powdered. Give some of the powder morning and evening. (Boordes Book of Knowledge, 1542)
ii. the ashes of a burnt Hare (or Rabbit) were taken with Lthontribon (a compound for Stones).
iii. ashes of a burnt Hare (or Rabbit), Burnt Grasshopper, dried Goat Blood
2. Dysentery and Diarrhea with Blood, Hares Rennet, Hares blood, equal parts. Mix and give. (Mizald)
3. Paralysis, Hare brain with Sage, Betony, Cinnamon and Clove.
4. Heart pain, Rabbit blood, Frankincense, Green Tea, formed into pills. (Rui Zhu Tang Fang, TCM)
5. Anxiety, restlessness, insanity, Rabbit brain, Aloeswood, Nutmeg, Costus, Clove (Tibetan Medicine)
6. Strengthen the sight, mix Rabbit Bile with Honey; distill and drop in.
7. In old TCM, Rabbit Brain and Rabbit Kidneys were combined in pills to ease Labor pain and promote Birth.
8. Diabetes with debility and emaciation, boil a whole rabbit (skin and organs removed) until it becomes like a paste. Strain and give the soup to drink whenever the patient is thirsty. Even severe cases, no more than 2 rabbits were said to be required to reolve the condition. (Cui Yuan Liang Hai Shang Fang, TCM)
9. Infertility: Spec. Diarrhodon, Hares Uterus 2 drams ea., Mercury seed, Ivory 2 scruples, Cotton seed, Tragacanth, Gum Arabic 1⁄2 dram ea.; form a confect with Conserve of Borage and Bugloss
Major Formulas:
Blood:
Tincture for Blood Stagnation
Rennet:
Powder for Bruises (Lemery)
Uterus:
Decoction for Sterility
Cautions:
None noted.
Main Preparations used:
For Stones
1. ‘Aetius, Sextus, Platonicus and Guarinonius do all of them commend a Hare baked in an oven till it is dry, then powdered; (But Poterius saith the Ashes of a Hare) given from 1–2 drams in Wine, is profitable to expel the Stone, some say to dissolve it; as also to prevent its breeding for the future; made into Pills with Turpentine, it is indeed of good use’.2. ‘This has been approved of: Take a hare with Young, calcine it to ashes; these Ashes mix with an equal quantity of sugar: dose 2 drams in any convenient vehicle… but Arnoldus de villa nova took a Hare, and filled the belly with the Skin, Saxifrage, Millet, Lapis Lynis, Lapis Judaicus, Lapis Spongi, Cinquefoil and Golden Rod, and then calcined it, of which he gave a spoonful in a glass of Wine every day, it broke (says he) and forced away the Stone in the Reins and Bladder’. (Medicina Practica: or Practical Physick … in 3 Books, by William Salmon, 1692)
3. ‘… take the blood and skin of a Hare, burning them to ashes. Then mix a quantity of this powder in warm water, and let the patient drink a spoonful of the mixture, fasting, and it will disintergrate the Stone, causing it to be expelled. If you would wish to prove this, put a spoonful of the same powder in water, and deposit any calculus you please therein, and it will instantly slacken it’. (The Physicians of Myddvai, translated by John Pughe esq., 1861)
4. ‘There is also much commended the bone of the Hare, which we call the Hares spring, pounded, and the same drunken with fresh broth’. (Wirtzung)