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By Root 903 0

is the cutting, puncturing, or otherwise operating on, a living animal, usually without the use of anesthesia, for scientism’s medical, physiological, or pathological “rational” investigation. This method of research renders confinement and usually extreme suffering for 70,000,000 of our companion animals each year. Ninety percent of these animals are referred to as “expendable mice and other rodents”; the “other rodents” being rabbits, squirrels, ferrets, guinea pigs, and hamsters. The remaining 10 percent of the animals used are apes, chimpanzees, monkeys, dogs, and cats (both strays and illegally seized pets), sheep, horses, goats, pigs, and exotic animals. This 10 percent in real numbers amounts to 7,000,000 non-rodent animals “rationally” violated yearly.

A growing portion of modern medical herbal research, which is eagerly referenced in most of today’s trendy new herbals, is derived directly from biomedical vivisection. This helps sustain the market for animal testing. If this concerns you, please examine your sources as you pursue your herbal studies, considering the role you might be playing in perpetuating the demand and commercial market for this sort of rational “medical herbal research.”

Vivisection is a technique that reductionist science instigated to bestow so called “rational credibility” upon itself. Currently, vivisection is employed by many other commercial industries as well to appease the insurance industry. Reviving the art, science, and language of Herbalism for enhancing human health simply does not require the pain and suffering of other species to generate credibility, nor is this required in any way for lay herbalists to continue developing insight into the use of plants for nourishment and well-being. I don’t see how the carnage and abuse of non-human species will somehow render human beings more healthy and happy. It is my deeply felt opinion that the continued support of vivisection and animal testing for gathering herbal knowledge is not in the least bit what green Herbalism is about. Accessing research based on vivisection is more about individuals attempting to establish some form of “medical credibility” and recognition as “advanced herbalists.” I suggest growing a garden instead, or adopting a puppy. Focus on life, nourishment, and health; deep insight and appropriate knowledge will follow.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

In the herb lab (as well as throughout the rest of the world), it is most useful to weigh herbs and measure liquids using the metric system. This system was developed by the French during their Revolution, supposedly to replace the many varied systems used at the time throughout the country. Most likely, however, the metric system was devised to defy the previous government s standard measurement system which was based on measurements of (royal) human anatomy. The avoirdupois system of measurement is one of those archaic systems the French snubbed ages ago, but we continue to embrace as the U.S. Conventional System. Our inch and ounce are possibly based on the length and mass of some late French king’s nose or other item of his anatomy, whereas the prime unit of measure for the metric system is the meter. This unit is based on the circumference of the Earth as measured on a line through Paris and the north and south poles. The length of this line was divided by 40,000,000, and each division was called a meter (from the Greek word metron, “measure”). Other standards of length (centimeter, millimeter, kilometer) were further defined by dividing or multiplying the meter by various factors of 10.

The standards of weight (mass) and volume are also derived from the meter. The gram (Gm) and its divisions are used for weighing, while the milliliter (ml), also known as a fluid-gram, is used to measure liquids.

The gram is a unit of weight set by the mass of a cubic centimeter (cc) of water under standard conditions. A gram and a cubic centimeter of distilled water are essentially identical. In other words, a measure of 1 cc of distilled water weighs 1 Gm (at sea level, at 4° C.).