> as lemmas

1614 S. Purchas Pilgrimage (ed. 2) v. xii. 505 Some also pretending themselues Natures Principall Secretaries, haue found out in these and the like..Signatures of Natures owne impression,fitted to their seuerall and speciall vses in Physicke.

1653 H. More Antidote against Atheisme ii. vi. 67 Wall nuts beare the whole signature of the head. The outward green Cortex answers to the Pericranium, and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds in that part, as the kernell is good for the brains which it resembles.

1695 J. Collier Misc. upon Moral Subj. 120 Whether Men, as they say of Plants, have Signatures to discover their Natures by, is hard to determine.

1748 tr. S. Werenfels Diss. Superstition 21 There are some that think those Herbs the fittest for curing those Parts of a Man's Body, to which they bear some Sort of Resemblance, commonly called a Signature.

1804 ‘Ignotus’ Culina 201 It is probable that the golden colour of the fish..induced the ignorant to suppose, that it was given by Providence as a signature to point out its medicinal quality.

1858 E. Lankester & W. B. Carpenter Veg. Physiol. (new ed.) §756 In former times such resemblances were greatly attended to by physicians, who termed them ‘signatures’.

1912 A. Arber Herbals viii. 210 The signature in some cases represents an animal injurious to man, and is taken to denote that the plant in question will cure its bites or stings.

1971 K. Thomas Relig. & Decline of Magic vii. 190 Even in this period there were still many believers in the doctrine of signatures, according to which every herb was stamped with a more or less clear sign of its uses; so that, for example, a yellow blossom indicated a likely cure for jaundice.

2000 Daily Tel. 9 May 18/7 The idea is that for every part of the human body there is a corresponding part in the natural world... Of course, we don't believe in the Doctrine of Signatures any more.