Chapter 11

362. LYSIMACHIA Nummularia. MONEYWORT, OR HERB TWOPENCE. The Leaves.-- Their taste is subastringent, and very slightly acid: hence they stand recommended by Boerhaave in the hot scurvy, and in uterine and other haemorrhagies. But their effects are so inconsiderable, that common practice takes no notice of them.

363. MALVA alcea. VERVAIN-MALLOW. The Leaves.--Alcea agrees in quality with the Althaea and Malva vulgaris; but appears to be less mucilaginous than either.

364. MATRICARIA Parthenium. COMMON WILD FEVERFEW. The Leaves and Flowers.--Simon Pauli relates, that he has experienced most happy effects from it in obstructions of the uterine evacuations. I have often seen, says he, from the use of a decoction of Matricaria and chamomile flowers with a little mugwort, hysteric complaints instantly relieved, and the patient from a lethargic state, returned as it were into life again. Matricaria is likewise recommended in sundry other disorders, as a warm stimulating bitter: all that bitters and carminatives can do, says Geoffroy, may be expected from this. It is undoubtedly a medicine of some use in these cases, though not perhaps equal to chamomile flowers alone, with which the Matricaria agrees in sensible qualities, except in being weaker.

365. NEPETA Calamintha. FIELD CALAMINT. The Leaves.--This is a low plant, growing wild about hedges and highways, and in dry sandy soils. The leaves have a quick warm taste, and smell strongly of pennyroyal: as medicines, they differ little otherwise from spearmint, than in being somewhat hotter, and of a less pleasant odour; which last circumstance has procured calamint the preference in hysteric cases.

366. NEPETA cataria. NEP, OR CATMINT. The Leaves.--This is a moderately aromatic plant, of a strong smell, not ill resembling a mixture of mint and pennyroyal; it is also recommended in hysteric cases.

367. NIGELLA romana. FENNEL-FLOWER. The Seeds.--They have a strong, not unpleasant smell; and a subacrid, somewhat unctuous disagreeable taste. They stand recommended as aperient, diuretic, &c. but being suspected to have noxious qualities should be used with caution.

368. NYMPHAEA alba. WHITE WATER-LILY. The Root and Flowers.--These have a rough, bitterish, glutinous taste, (the flowers are the least rough,) and when fresh a disagreeable smell, which is in great measure lost by drying: they are recommended in alvine fluxes, gleets, and the like. The roots are supposed by some to be in an eminent degree narcotic.

369. OCYMUM Basilicum. BASIL. The Leaves.--These have a soft, somewhat warm taste; and when rubbed, a strong unpleasant smell, which by moderate drying becomes more agreeable. They are said to attenuate viscid phlegm, promote expectoration, and the uterine secretions.

370. OPHIOGLOSSUM vulgatum. ADDERS-TONGUE. The Leaf.--An ointment is made of the fresh leaves, and it is a good application to green wounds. It is a very antient application, although now discarded from the apothecary's shop.

371. PAEONIA corolloides. MALE PEONY. The Seeds.--These are strong, and worn round the neck to assist detention, and are probably as good as other celebrated anodyne beads which have been so long recommended for the same purpose.

372. PHELLANDRIUM aquaticum. WATER HEMLOCK.--The seeds of this plant, according to Dr. Lange, when taken in large doses, produce a remarkable sensation of weight in the head, accompanied with giddiness, intoxication, &c. It may probably prove, however, an active medicine, especially in wounds and inveterate ulcers of different kinds, and even in cancers; also in phthisis pulmonalis, asthma, dyspepsia, intermittent fevers, &c. About two scruples of the seed, two or three times a-day, was the ordinary dose given. Medicines of this kind should be used with great caution.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 91, 92.

373. PIMPINELLA saxifraga. BURNET SAXIFRAGE. The Root, Leaves, and Seeds.--This root promises from its sensible qualities, to be a medicine of considerable utility, though little regarded in common pratice. Stahl, Hoffman, and other German physicians, are extremely fond of it, and recommend it as an excellent stomachic, resolvent, detergent, diuretic, diaphoretic, and alexipharmic.

374. PLANTAGO major. COMMON BROAD-LEAVED PLANTAIN.--The leaves are slightly astringent, and the seeds said to be so; and hence they stand recommended in haemorrhages, and other cases where medicines of this kind are proper. The leaves bruised a little, are the usual application of the common people to slight flesh wounds. The Edinburgh College used to direct an extract to be made from the leaves.

375. POTENTILLA anserina. SILVERWEED. The Leaves.--The sensible qualities of Anserina promise no great virtue of any kind, for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughness, from whence it was thought to be entitled to a place among the milder corroborants. As the astringency of Tormentil is confined chiefly to its root, it might be thought that the same circumstance would take place in this plant; but the root is found to have no other than a pleasant sweetish taste, like that of parsnip, but not so strong.

376. POTENTILLA reptans. CINQUEFOIL, OR FIVE-LEAVED GRASS. Root.--The root is moderately astringent: and as such is sometimes given internally against diarrhoeas and other fluxes; and employed in gargarisms for strengthening the gums, &c. The cortical part of the root may be taken, in substance, to the quantity of a dram: the internal part is considerably weaker, and requires to be given in double the dose to produce the same effect. It is scarcely otherwise made use of than as an ingredient in Venice treacle.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

377. POPULUS niger. THE BLACK POPLAR. Its Buds.--The young buds or rudiments of the leaves, which appear in the beginning of spring, abound with a yellow, unctuous odorous juice. They have hitherto been employed chiefly in an ointment, which received its name from them; though they are certainly capable of being applied to other purposes: a tincture of them made in rectified spirit, yields upon being isnpissated, a fragrant resin superior to many of those brought from abroad.

378. PRIMULA officinalis. COWSLIP. The Flowers.--The flowers appear in April; they have a pleasant sweet smell, and a subacrid, bitterish, subastringent taste. An infusion of them, used as tea, is recommended as a mild corroborant in nervous complaints. A strong infusion of them, with a proper quantity of sugar, forms an agreeable syrup, which for a long time maintained a place in the shops. By boiling, even for a little time, their fine flavour is destroyed. A wine is also made of the flowers, which is given as an opiate.

379. PRUNELLA vulgaris. SELFHEAL. The Leaves.--It has an herbaceous roughish taste, and hence stands recommended in haemorrhages and alvine fluxes. It has been principally celebrated as a vulnerary, whence its name; and in gargarisms for aphthae and inflammations of the fauces.

380. PULMONARIA officinalis. SPOTTED LUNGWORT. The Leaves.--They stand recommended against ulcers of the lungs, phthisis, and other like disorders.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

381. RANUNCULUS Ficaria. PILEWORT. The Leaves and Root.--The roots consist of slender fibres, with some little tubercles among them. These, with the leaves, are considered of considerable eficacy in the cure of haemorrhoids; for which purpose, considerable quantities are sold at herb-shops in London.

382. RANUNCULUS Flammula. SMALL SPEARWORT.--It has been lately discovered that this plant possesses very active powers as an emetic, and it is supposed to be useful in some cases of vegetable poisons.

383. RHAMNUS Frangula. THE BLACK OR BERRY-BEARING ALDER. Its Bark.--The internal bark of the trunk or root of the tree, given to the quantity of a dram, purges violently, occasioning gripes, nausea, and vomiting. These may be in good measure prevented by the addition of aromatics; but we have plenty of safer and less precarious purgatives.

384. RHUS coriaria. ELM-LEAVED SUMACH.--Both the leaves and berries have been employed in medicine; but the former are more astringent and tonic, and have been long in common use, though at present discarded from the Pharmacopoeias.

385. RIBES nigrum.--The juice of black currants boiled up with sugar to a jelly, is an excellent remedy against sore throats.

386. RUMEX Hydrolapathum. THE GREAT WATER DOCK.--The leaves of the docks gently loosen the belly, and have sometimes been made ingredients in decoctions for removing a costive habit. The roots, in conjunction with other medicines, are celebrated for the cure of scorbutic and cutaneous disorders, for which the following receipt is given by Lewis.

Six ounces of the roots of the water dock, with two of saffron; and of mace, cinnamon, gentian root, liquorice root, and black pepper, each three ounces, (or, where the pepper is improper, six ounces of liquorice,) are to be reduced into coarse powder, and put into a mixture of two gallons of wine, with half a gallon of strong vinegar, and the yolks of three egs; and the whole digested, with a moderate warmth, for three days, in a glazed vessel close stopped: from three to six ounces of this liquor are to be taken every morning on an empty stomach, for fourteen or twenty days, or longer.

387. SALVIA Sclarea. GARDEN CLARY. The Leaves and Seeds.--These have a warm, bitterish, pungent taste; and a strong, not very agreeable smell: the touch discovers in the leaves a large quantity of glutinous or resinous matter. They are principally recommended in female weaknesses, in hysteric disorders, and in flatulent colics.

388. SAMBUCUS Ebulus. DWARF ELDER, OR DANEWORT. The Root, Bark, and Leaves.--These have a nauseous, sharp, bitter taste, and a kind of acrid ungrateful smell: they are all strong cathartics, and as such are recommended in dropsies, and other cases where medicines of that kind are indicated. The bark of the root is said to be strongest: the leaves the weakest. But they are all too churlish medicines for general use: they sometimes evacuate violently upwards, almost always nauseate the stomach, and occasion great uneasiness of the bowels. By boiling they become (like the other drastics) milder, and more safe in operation. Fernelius relates, that by long coction they entirely lose their purgative virtue. The berries of this plant are likewise purgative, but less virulent than the other parts. A rob prepared from them may be given to the quantity of an ounce, as a cathartic; and in smaller ones as an aperient and deobstruent in chronic disorders: in this last intention, it is said by Haller to be frequently used in Switzerland, in the dose of a dram.

389. SANICULA officinalis. SANICLE. The Leaves.--These have an herbaceous, roughish taste: they have long been celebrated for sanative virtues, both internally and externally; nevertheless their effects, in any intention, are not considerable enough to gain them a place in the present practice.

390. SAPONARIA officinalis. SOAPWORT. The Herb and Root.--The roots taste sweetish and somewhat pungent; and have a light smell like those of liquorice: digested in rectified spirit they yield a strong tincture, which loses nothing of its taste or flavour in being inspissated to the consistence of an extract. This elegant root has not come much into practice among us, though it promises, from its sensible qualities, to be a medicine of considerable utility: it is greatly esteemed by the German physicians as an aperient, corroborant, and sudorific; and preferred by the College of Wirtemberg, by Stahl, Neumann, and others, to sarsaparilla.

391. SAXIFRAGA granulata.--Linnaeus describes the taste of this plant to be acrid and pungent, which we have not been able to discover. Neither the tubercles of this root, nor the leaves, manifest to the organs of taste any quality likely to be of medicinal use; and therefore, though this species of Saxifraga has been long employed as a popular remedy in nephritic and gravelly disorders, yet we do not find, either from its sensible qualities or from any published instances of its efficacy, that it deserves a place in the Materia Medica.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 551.

392. SCABIOSA succisa. DEVIL'S BIT. The Leaves and Roots.--These stand recommended as alexipharmics, but they have long given place to medicines of greater efficacy.

393. SCANDIX Cerefolium. Chervil. The Leaves.--Geoffroy assures us, that he has found it from experience to be of excellent service in dropsies: that in this disorder it promotes the discharge of urine when suppressed, renders it clear when feculent and turbid, and when high and fiery of a paler colour; that it acts midly without irritation, and tends rather to allay than excite inflammation. He goes so far as to say, that dropsies which do not yield to this medicine are scarce capable of being cured by any other. He directs the juice to be given in the dose of three or four ounces every fourth hour, and continued for some time, either alone, or in conjunction with nitre and syrup.

394. SEDUM Telephium. ORPINE. The Leaves.--This is a very thick-leaved juicy plant, not unlike the houseleeks. It has a mucilaginous roughish taste, and hence is recommended as emollient and astringent, but has never been much regarded in practice.

395. SEMPERVIVUM tectorum. GREATER HOUSE-LEEK. The Leaves.--These are principally applied in cases of erysipelatous and other hot eruptions of the skin, in which they are of immediate service in allaying the pain arising therefrom: great quantities are cultivated in Surrey, and brought to the London markets. It is remarkable of this plant, that its juice, when purified by filtration, appears of a dilute yellowish colour upon the admixture of an equal quantity of rectified spirit of wine; but forms a beautiful white, light coagulum, like the finer kinds of pomatum: this proves extremely volatile; for when freed from the aqueous phlegm, and exposed to the air, it altogether exhales in a very little time.

396. SENECIO Jacobaea. RAGWORT. The Leaves.--Their taste is roughish, bitter, pungent, and extremely unpleasant: they stand strongly recommended by Simon Pauli against dysenteries; but their forbidding taste has prevented its coming into practice.

397. SOLANUM nigrum. COMMON NIGHTSHADE. The Leaves and Berries.--In the year 1757, Mr. Gataker, surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, called the attention of the Faculty to this plant, by a publication recommending its internal use in old sores, srophulous and cancerous ulcers, cutaneous eruptions, and even dropsies; all of which were much relieved or completely cured of it.

398. SPIRAEA Ulmaria. MEADOW-SWEET. The Leaves and Flowers.--The flowers have a very pleasant flavour, which water extracts from them by infusion, and elevates in distillation.

399. SPIRAEA Filipendula. DROPWORT. The Root.--The root consists of a number of tubercles, fastened together by slender strings; its taste is rough and bitterish, with a slight degree of pungency. These qualities point out its use in a flaccid state of the vessels, and a sluggishness of the juices: the natural evacuations are in some measure restrained or promoted by it, where the excess or deficiency proceeds from this cause. Hence some have recommended it as an astringent in dysenteries, a diuretic, and others as an aperient and deobstruent in scrophulous habits.

400. SYMPHYTUM officinale. COMFREY. The Root.--The roots are very large, black on the outside, white within, full of a viscid glutinous juice, of no particular taste. They agree in quality with the roots of Althaea; with this difference, that the mucilage of it is somewhat stronger-bodied. Many ridiculous histories of the consolidating virtues of this plant are related by authors.

401. TAMUS communis. BLACK BRYONY.--The root is one of the best diuretics known in medicine. It is an excellent remedy in the gravel and all obstructions of urine, and other disorders of the like nature.

402. TANACETUM vulgare. TANSY. The Leaves.--These have a bitterish warm aromatic taste; and a very pleasant smell, approaching to that of mint or a mixture of mint and maudlin. Water elevates their flavour in distillation; and rectified spirit extracts it by infusion. They have been recommended in hysteric cases.

403. TEUCRIUM Chamaepitys. GROUND PINE. The Leaves.--These are recommended as aperient and vulnerary, as also in gouty and rheumatic pains.

404. THYMUS vulgaris. THYME. The Leaves and Flowers.--A tea made of the fresh tops of thyme is good in asthmas and diseases of the lungs. It is recommended against nervous complaints; but for this purpose the wild thyme is preferable. There is an oil made from thyme that cures the tooth-ache, a drop or two of it being put upon lint and applied to the tooth; this is commonly called oil of origanum.

405. TRIGONELLA Foenum-graecum. FOENUGREEK. The Seeds.--They are of a yellow colour, a rhomboidal figure; have a disagreeable strong smell, and a mucilaginous taste. Their principal use is in cataplasms, fomentations, and the like, and in emollient glysters.

406. VERBASCUM Thapsus. MULLEIN. The Leaves and Flowers.--Their taste discovers a glutinous quality; and hence they stand recommended as an emollient, and is in some places held in great esteem in consumptions. The flowers of mullein have an agreeable, honeylike sweetness: an extract prepared from them by rectified spirit of wine tastes extremely pleasant.

407. VERBENA officinalis. COMMON WILD VERVAIN. The Leaves and Root.-- This is one of the medicines which we owe to the superstition of former ages; the virtue it has been celebrated for is as an amulet, on which a pamphlet was some years ago published. It was recommended to wear the root by a ribband tied round the neck for the cure of the scrophula, and for which purpose, even now, much of the root is sold in London. As the age of superstition is passing by, it will be needless to say more on the subject at present.

408. VERONICA officinalis. MALE SPEEDWELL. The Leaves.--Hoffman and Joh. Francus have written express treatises on this plant, recommending infusions of it, drunk in the form of tea, as very salubrious in many disorders, particularly those of the breast.

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Observations on the Drying and Preserving of Herbs, &c. for Medicinal Purposes.

The student who has paid attention to the subject described in the foregoing sections, will be struck with the admirable contrivance of Divine Wisdom; that has caused such astringent substances as are contained in the oak and Peruvian bark, to be produced from the same soil, and in a similar way to those mucilaginous and laxative ones which we find in the juice of the marsh-mallow, and the olive oil. It is not intended in this small elementary work to enter into any investigation of the primitive parts of the vegetable creation, or how such different particles are secreted. It may therefore suffice, that, although the science of vegetable physiology admits of many very beautiful and instructing illustrations, yet they only go so far as to prove to us, that the first and grand principle of vegetable life and existence, as well as of the formation of all organic substances, consists in a system of attraction and combination of the different particles of nature, as they exist and are imbibed from the soil and the surrounding atmosphere. Thus, during their existence, we observe a continual series of aggregation of substance; but no sooner does the principle of life become extinct, than the agents of decomposition are at work, dividing and selecting each different substance, and carrying it back from whence it came:--"From dust thou comest, and to dust thou shalt return." This, therefore, seems to be the sum total of existence; the explanation of which, with all its interesting ramifications, is more fully explained by the learned professors in what is called the science of chemistry.

As plants of all descriptions, and their several parts, form a link of that chain by which the welfare of the universe is connected, the industry of mankind is excited to preserve them for the different purposes to which they are applicable, in the oeconomy of human existence, to whose use the greater part of the animal and vegetable creation appears to be subservient. As men, then, and rational beings, it becomes our duty so to manage those things, when necessary, as to counteract as much as possible the decomposition and corruption which are natural to all organized bodies when deprived of the living principle.

We find that some vegetables are used fresh, but the greater part are preserved in a dry state; in which, by proper management, they can be kept for a considerable time afterwards, both for our own use as well as for that of others who reside at a distance from the place of their production.

In the preparation of the parts of plants for medicinal purposes, we should always have in view the extreme volatility of many of those substances, and how necessary it therefore is, that the mode of preparation and drying should be done as quickly as possible, in order to counteract the effects of the air and light, which continue to dissipate, without intermission, these particles, during the whole time that any vegetable, either fresh or dried, is left to its influence.

If we consider the nature of hops, which I shall take as an example, as being prepared in this way on the largest scale, we shall find they consist of three different principles; namely, an aroma, combined with an agreeable bitter taste, and a yellow colour; all of which properties are, by the consumers and dealers therein, expected to exist in the article after drying.

The art of drying hops, therefore, has been a subject of speculation for many years; and although we find the kiln apparatus for preserving them differ in many places, from the various opinions of the projectors, yet they are all intended for the same mode of action, i. e. the producing of a proper degree of heat, which must be regulated according to the state of the atmosphere at the gathering season, and the consequent quantity of the watery extract that the hops contain at the time: thus it is usual to have two kilns of different temperatures at work at the same time. It should, however, be observed, that the principal art of drying hops is in doing it as quickly as possible, so as not to injure them in their colour. As soon as they are dried, it is considered necessary to put them up into close and thick bags.

It should be observed, that all vegetables contain at every period of their growth two distinct species of moiture: the one called by naturalists the common juice, which is the ascending sap, and is replete with watery particles: the other is termed the proper juice, which having passed up through the leaves, and being there concocted and deprived of the watery part, contains the principle on which various properties and virtues of the plant depend. We therefore find that the operations above described only go to this, that the watery particles in the common juice should be evaporated, as being a part necessary to be got rid of; and the proper juice being of a volatile nature, the less time the plants are exposed for that purpose, the less of this precious material will be lost: and as those parts are flying off continually from all dried vegetables, there should be one general rule made with regard to their peparation; for, if we instance mint, balm, pennyroyal, &c., the longer these are kept in the open air, the weaker are they found to be in their several parts.