Recently there has been a revival of interest in western herbalism, but practitioners haven't been able to explore its benefits due to a void of information on the topic -- the system of medicine the herbs fit into had all but disappeared. To remedy the situation, Matthew Wood has researched the old-time practices and reconstructed them for modern use. In resuscitating western herbal medicine and bringing it up to date, he gives his readers a powerful tool for holistic theory and treatment. Wood makes the point that plant medicines, because they are made from a broad range of chemical components, are naturally suited for the treatment of general patterns in the body. He argues against the biomedical model of standardization, in which herbs are refined and advertised as if they were drugs suited to an exact disease or conditon.