| HERBS & LONGEVITY TALK
In Cancer Ward, while fiction and a means to reflect on Soviet society, the author, Nobel Laureate, and former Cavendish resident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, relied heavily on his own experience as a cancer patient. Solzhenitsyn describes how a doctor notices that peasant patients don't seem to get cancer, which he concludes is from their practice of drinking chaga tea. However, Solzhenitsyn turned to European mandrake root to treat his cancer, along with radiation therapy.
Like chaga, mandrake has been used for centuries and it turns out, a study conducted at the National Cancer Institute found that using the formula Solzhenitsyn followed with mandrake root contained two cancer drugs. Note that American mandrake (Podophyllum peltatum) is an entirely different plant than the European variety used by Solzhenitsyn.
On Sept. 29 (Sunday) at 2 pm, the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) will host a talk on plants and herbs associated with longevity. One of the speakers will be Dr. Charis Boke, a member of the Dartmouth College faculty in anthropology. She is currently writing Poison, Power, and Possibility: Building Relations with Medicinal which will explore the poetics, politics, and practices of contemporary herbalists in North America, leaning on ethnographic research, botanical histories, and lived experience to examine what it takes to remedy what ails us. Dr. Boke was involved in helping with the Benjamin Rush Medicinal Garden at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.
This event will take place at the CHS Museum in Cavendish Village (route 131) and is free and open to the public. Donations welcomed.
For more information, please call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com
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