A Story of Legend - dear Mugwort 

     A healing man from Galloway was said to receive at least some of his medicinal knowledge  from a mermaid.  When a local girl fell ill with consumption, the man tried his best to cure her but his herbs had no affect.  Whilst he sat sorrowing on the shore, a mermaid appeared in the waves and sang to him.....     

                  Would you let Bonnie May die in your hand and leave the mugwort flowering on the land ?

The man sprung up and set about gathering the flowers of Mugwort to make a tincture that he then gave to Mary and she was soon restored to full health

Back in the late 1800's and early 1900's we know consumption today by TB (Tuberculosis ) or the other common name of White Plague.  It was a bacteria that primarily infected the lungs causing a hacking cough,  fatigue and lung pain.  My mother was hospitalised with this along with  her sister, from drinking unpasteurised milk direct from the farms in the second world war.