Chapter 8

219. INULA Helenium. ELECAMPANE. Root. D.--Elecampane root possesses the general virtues of alexipharmics: it is principally recommended for promoting expectoration in humoural asthmas and coughs; in which intention, it used to be employed in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia: liberally taken, it is said to excite urine, and loosen the belly. In some parts of Germany, large quantities of this root are candied, and used as a stomachic, for strengthening the tone of the viscera in general, and for attenuating tenacious juices. Spiritous liquors extract its virtues in greater perfection than watery ones: the former scarce elevate any thing in distillation: with the latter, an essential oil arises, which concretes into white flakes; this possesses at first the flavour of the elecampane, but is very apt to lose it in keeping.

220. JUNIPERUS Sabina. SAVINE. The Tops. L. E. D.--Savine is a warm irritating aperient medicine, capable of promoting all the glandular secretions. The distilled oil is one of the most powerful emmenagogues; and is found of good service in obstructions of the uterus, or other viscra, proceeding from a laxity and weakness of the vessels, or a cold sluggish indisposition of the juices.

Similar Plants.--Juniperus oxycedrus; J. Phoenicea. These should be particularly distinguished, as Savine is attended with danger when taken immoderately.

221. JUNIPERUS communis. JUNIPER. Berries. L. E. D.--Juniper berries have a strong, not disagreeable smell; and a warm, pungent sweet taste, which, if they are long chewed, or previously well bruised, is followed by a bitterish one. The pungency seems to reside in the bark; the sweet in the juice; the aromatic flavour in oily vesicles, spread through the substance of the pulp, and distinguishable even by the eye; and the bitter in the seeds: the fresh berries yield, on expression, a rich, sweet, honey-like, aromatic juice; if previously pounded so as to break the seeds, the juice proves tart and bitter.

222. LACTUCA virosa. WILD LETTUCE. Leaves. E.--Dr. Collin at Vienna first brought the Lactuca virosa into medical repute; and its character has lately induced the College of Physicians at Edinburgh to insert it in the Catalogue of the Materia Medica. More than twenty-four cases of dropsy are said by Collin to have been successfully treated, by employing an extract prepared from the expressed juice of this plant, which is stated not only to be powerfully diuretic, but, by attenuating the viscid humours, to promote all the secretions, and to remove visceral obstructions. In the more simple cases proceeding from debility, the extract in doses of eighteen to thirty grains a-day, proved sufficient to accomplish a cure; but when the disease was inveterate, and accompanied with visceral obstructions, the quantity of extract was increased to three drams; nor did larger doses, though they excited nausea, ever produce any other bad effect; and the patients continued so strong under the use of this remedy, that it was seldom necessary to employ any tonic medicines.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 76.

Similar Plants.--Sonchus arvensis; Lactuca Scariola.

223. LAVANDULA Spica. LAVENDER. Flowers. L. D.--Lavender has been an officinal plant for a considerable time, though we have no certain accounts of it given by the ancients. Its medical virtue resides in the essential oil, which is supposed to be a gentle corroborant and stimulant of the aromatic kind; and is recommended in nervous debilities, and various affections proceeding from a want of energy in the animal functions.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 323.

224. LAURUS nobilis. BAY-TREE. Leaves and Berries. L.--In distillation with water, the leaves of bay yield a small quantity of very fragrant essential oil; with rectified spirit, they afford a moderately warm pungent extract. The berries yield a larger quantity of essential oil: they discover likewise a degree of unctuosity in the mouth; give out to the press an almost insipid fluid oil; and on being boiled in water, a thicker butyraceous one of a yellowish-green colour, impregnated with the flavour of the berry. An infusion of the leaves is sometimes drunk as tea; and the essential oil of the berries may be given from one to five or six drops on sugar, or dissolved by means of mucilages, or in spirit of wine.--Woodville's Med Bot. p. 680, 681.

225. LAURUS Sassafras. SASSAFRAS-TREE. Bark. L. E. D.--Its medical character was formerly held in great estimation; and its sensible qualities, which are stronger than any of the woods, may have probably contributed to establish the opinion so generally entertained of its utility in many inveterate diseases: for, soon after its introduction into Europe, it was sold at a very high price, and its virtues were extolled in publications professedly written on the subject. It is now, however, thought to be of very little importance, and seldom employed but in conjunction with other medicines of a more powerful nature.

Dr. Cullen found that a watery infusion of it taken warm and pretty largely, was very effectual in promoting sweat; but he adds, "to what particular purpose this sweating was applicable, I have not been able to determine." In some constitutions sassafras, by its extreme fragrance, is said to produce headache: to deprive it of this effect, the decoction ought to be employed.--Woodville's Mat. Med. p. 677.

226. LEONTODON Taraxicum. N EBION. Root. L.--The roots contain a bitter milky juice; they promise to be of use as asperient and detergent medicines; and have sometimes been directed in this intention with good success. Boerhaave esteems them capable, if duly continued, of resolving almost all kinds of coagulations, and opening very obstinate obstructions of the viscera.

227. LINUM usitatissimum. FLAX. The Seeds. L. E.--Linseed yields to the press a considerable quantity of oil; and boiled in water, a strong mucilage: these are occasionally made use of for the same purposes as other substances of that class; and sometimes the seeds themselves in emollient and maturating cataplasms. They have also been employed in Asia, and, in times of scarcity, in Europe, as food: but are not agreeable, or in general wholesome.

228. LINUM catharticum. PURGING-FLAX. The Herb. L. D.-This is a very small plant, not above four or five inches high, found wild upon chalky hills, and in dry pasture-grounds. Its virtue is expressed in its title: an infusion in water or whey of a handful of the fresh leaves, or a dram of them in substance when dried, is said to purge without inconvenience.

229. LOBELIA siphylitica. BLUE CARDINAL FLOWER. The Root. E.--Every part of the plant abounds with a milky juice, and has a rank smell. The root, which is the part directed for medicinal use, in taste resembles tobacco, and is apt to excite vomiting. It derived its name, Siphylitica, from its efficacy in the cure of Siphylis, as experienced by the North American Indians, who considered it a specific to that disease.

A decoction was made of a handful of the roots in three measures of water. Of this, half a measure is taken in the morning fasting, and repeated in the evening; and the dose is gradually increased till its purgative effects become too violent, when the decoction is to be intermitted for a day or two, and then renewed till a perfect cure is effected. But it does not appear that the antisiphylitic powers of Lobelia have been confirmed by any instances of European practice.-- Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 251.

230. LYTHRUM Salicaria. WILLOW HERB. The Herb. D.--This is used internally in dropsies, obstinate gleets, and leucorrhoea.

Similar Plants.--Epilobium palustre; Epilob. angustifolium; Epilob. hirsutum.

231. MALVA sylvestris. COMMON MALLOW. Herb. L. E.--The leaves are ranked the first of the four emollient herbs: they were formerly of some esteem, in food, for loosening the belly; at present, decoctions of them are sometimes employed in dysenteries, heat and sharpness of urine, and in general for obtunding acrimonious humours: their principal use is in emollient glysters, cataplasms, and fomentations.

232. MARRUBIUM vulgare. HORFHOUND. Herb. E. D.--It is greatly extolled for its efficacy in removing obstructions of the lungs and other viscera. It has chiefly been employed in humoural asthmas. Mention is made of its successful use in scirrhous affections of the liver, jaundice, cachexies, and menstrual suppressions.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 333.

Similar Plants.--Ballota nigra; B. alba.

233. MELISSA officinalis. BALM. Herb. L. E.--This herb, in its recent state, has a weak roughish aromatic taste, and a pleasant smell, somewhat of the lemon kind. On distilling the fresh herb with water, it impregnates the first runnings pretty strongly with its grateful flavour. Prepared as tea, however, it makes a grateful diluent drink in fevers; and in this way it is commonly used, either by itself, or acidulated with the juice of lemons.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 335, 336.

234. MENTHA viridis. SPEAR-MINT. Leaves. L. D.--The virtues of Mint are those of a warm stomachic and carminative: in loss of appetite, nauseae, continual retchings to vomit, and (as Boerhaave expresses it) almost paralytic weakness of the stomach, there are few simples perhaps of equal efficacy. In colicky pains, the gripes to which children are subject, lienteries, and other kinds of immoderate fluxes, this plant frequently does good service. It likewise proves beneficial in sundry hysteric cases, and affords an useful cordial in languors and other weaknesses consequent upon delivery. The best preparations for these purposes are, a strong infusion made from the dry leaves in water (which is much superior to one from the green herb) or rather a tincture or extract prepared with rectified spirit.

The essential oil, a simple and spirituous water, and a conserve, are kept in the shops: the Edinburgh College directs an infusion of the leaves in the distilled water. This herb is an ingredient also in the three alexitereal waters; and its essential oil in the stomach plaster and stomach pills.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

235. MENTHA Piperita. PEPPER-MINT. Herb. L. E. D.--The leaves have a more penetrating smell than any of the other mints, and a much warmer, pungent, glowing taste like pepper, sinking as it were into the tongue. The principal use of this herb is in flatulent colics, languors, and other like disorders; it seems to act as soon as taken, and extends its effects through the whole system, instantly communicating a glowing warmth. Water extracts the whole of the pungency of this herb by infusion, and elevates it in distillation. Its officinal preparations are an essential oil, and a simple and spirituous water.

236. MENTHA Pulegium. PENNYROYAL. Herb. L. E. D.--Pennyroyal is a warm pungent herb of the aromatic kind, similar to mint, but more acrid and less agreeable. It has long been held in great esteem, and not undeservedly, as an aperient and deobstruent, particularly in hysteric complaints, and suppressions of the uterine purgations. For these purposes, the distilled water is generally made use of, or, what is of equal efficacy, an infusion of the leaves. It is observable, that both water and rectified spirit extract the virtues of this herb by infusion, and likewise elevate greatest part of them in distillation.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

237. MENYANTHES trifoliata. BUCK-BEAN. Leaves. L. E. D.--This is an efficacious aperient and deobstruent; it promotes the fluid secretions, and, if liberally taken, gently loosens the belly. It has of late gained great reputation in scorbutic and scrophulous disorders; and its good effects in these cases have been warranted by experience: inveterate cutaneous diseases have been removed by an infusion of the leaves, drunk to the quantity of a pint a-day, at proper intervals, and continued some weeks. Boerhaave relates, that he was relieved of the gout by drinking the juice mixed with whey.

238. MOMORDICA Elaterium. SPIRTING CUCUMBER. Fruit L. E. D.--Elaterium is a strong cathartic, and very often operates also upwards. Two or three grains are accounted in most cases a sufficient dose. Simon Paulli relates some instances of the good effects of this purgative in dropsies: but cautions practitioners not to have recourse to it till after milder medicines have proved ineffectual; to which caution we heartily subscribe. Medicines indeed in general, which act with violence in a small dose, require the utmost skill to manage them with any tolerable degree of safety: to which may be added, that the various manners of making these kinds of preparations, as practised by different hands, must needs vary their power.

239. MORUS nigra. MULBERRY. Fruit. L.--It has the common qualities of the other sweet fruits, abating heat, quenching thirst, and promoting the grosser secretions; an agreeable syrup made from the juice is kept in the shops. The bark of the roots has been in considerable esteem as a vermifuge; its taste is bitter, and somewhat astringent.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

240. NICOTIANA Tabacum. TOBACCO. Leaves. L. E. D.--Tobacco is sometimes used externally in unguents for destroying cutaneous insects, cleansing old ulcers, &c. Beaten into a mash with vinegar or brandy, it has sometimes proved serviceable for removing hard tumours of the hypochondres.

241. ORIGANUM Majorana. SWEET MARJORAM. Herb. L. E.-It is a moderately warm aromatic, yielding its virtues both to aqueous and spirituous liquors by infusion, and to water in distillation. It is principally celebrated in disorders of old people. An essential oil of the herb is kept in the shops. The powder of the leaves proves an agreeable errhine.

242. ORIGANUM vulgare. POT MARJORAM. Herb. L. D.--It has an agreeable aromatic smell approaching to that of marjoram, and a pungent taste much resembling thyme, to which it is likewise thought to be more nearly allied in its medicinal qualities than to any of the other verticillatae, and therefore deemed to be emmenagogue, tonic, stomachic, &c.

The dried leaves used instead of tea are said to be extremely grateful. They are also employed in medicated baths and fomentations.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 345.

243. OXALIS Acetosella. WOOD SORREL. Herb. L.--In taste and medical qualities it is similar to the common sorrel, but considerably more grateful, and hence is preferred by the London College. Boiled with milk, it forms an agreeable whey; and beaten with sugar, a very elegant conserve.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

244. PAPAVER Rhoeas. RED POPPY. Petals. L. E. D.--The flowers of this plant yield upon expression a deep red juice, and impart the same colour by infusion to aqueous liquors. A syrup of them is kept in the shops: this is valued chiefly for its colour; though some expect from it a lightly anodyne virtue.

245. PAPAVER somniferum. OPIUM POPPY. Gum. L. E. D.-Poppy heads, boiled in water, impart to the menstruum their narcotic juice, together with the other juices which they have in common with vegetable matters in general. The liquor strongly pressed out, suffered to settle, clarified with whites of eggs, and evaporated to a due consistence, yields about one-fifth or one-sixth the weight of the heads, of extract. This possesses the virtues of opium; but requires to be given in double its dose to answer the same intention, which it is said to perform without occasioning nausea and giddiness, the usual consequences of the other.

The general effects of this medicine are, to relax the solids, ease pain, procure sleep, promote perspiration, but restrain all other evacuations. When its operation is over, the pain, and other symptoms which it had for a time abated, return; and generally with greater violence than before, unless the cause has been removed by the diaphoresis or relaxation which it occasioned.

The operation of opium is generally attended with a slow, but strong and full pulse, a dryness of the mouth, a redness and light itching of the skin: and followed by a degree of nausea, a difficulty of respiration, lowness of the spirits, and a weak languid pulse.

With regard to the dose of opium, one grain is generally sufficient, and often too large a one; maniacal persons, and those who have been long accustomed to take it, require three or more grains to have the due effect. Among the eastern nations, who are habituated to opium, a dram is but a moderate dose: Garcias relates, that he knew one who every day took ten drams. Those who have been long accustomed to its use, upon leaving it off, are seized with great lowness, languor, and anxiety; which are relieved by having again recourse to opium, and, in some measure, by wine or spirituous liquors.

Similar Plants.--Papaver hybridum; P. Argemone.

246. PASTINACA Opoponax. OPOPONAX, or CANDY CARROT. Gum Opoponax. L.-- The juice is brought from Turkey and the East Indies, sometimes in round drops or tears, but more commonly in irregular lumps, of a reddish-yellow colour on the outside, with specks of white, inwardly of a paler colour, and frequently variegated with large white pieces.

Boerhaave frequently employed it, along with ammoniacum and galbanum, in hypochondriacal disorders, obstructions of the abdominal viscera from a sluggishness of mucous humours, and a want of due elasticity of the solids.

247. PIMPINELLA Anisum. ANISEED. The Seeds. L. E. D.-These seeds are in the number of the four greater hot seeds: their principal use is in cold flatulent disorders, where tenacious phlegm abounds, and in the gripes to which young children are subject. Frederick Hoffman strongly recommends them in weakness of the stomach, diarrhoeas, and for strengthening the tone of the viscera in general; and thinks they well deserve the appellation given them by Helmont, intestinorum solamen.

248. PINUS sylvestris. SCOTCH FIR. Tar, yellow Resin, and Turpentine. L. D.--Tar, which is well known from its oeconomical uses, is properly an empyreumatic oil of turpentine, and has been much used as a medicine, both internally and externally. Tar-water, or water impregnated with the more soluble parts of tar, was some time ago a very popular remedy in various obstinate disorders, both acute and chronic, especially in small-pox, scurvy, ulcers, fistulas, rheumatisms, &c.

Turpentine is an extract also from the same tree, which is used for various purposes of medicine and the arts.

249. PINUS Abies. SPRUCE-FIR. Burgundy Pitch. L. E. D.--This is entirely confined to external use, and was formerly an ingredient in several ointments and plasters. In inveterate coughs, affections of the lungs, and other internal complaints, plasters of this resin, by acting as a tropical stimulus, are frequently found of considerable service.-- Woodville's Med. Bot.

250. POLYGONUM Bistorta. BISTORT. The Roots. L. E. D.--All the parts of bistort have a rough austere taste, particularly the root, which is one of the strongest of the vegetable stringents. It is employed in all kinds of immoderate haemorrhages and other fluxes, both internally and externally, where astringency is the only intention. It is certainly a very powerful styptic, and is to be looked on simply as such; the sudorific, antipestilential, and other like virtues attributed to it, it has no other claim to, than in consequence of this property, and of the antiseptic power which it has in common with other vegetable styptics. The largest dose of the root in powder is one dram.

251. PRUNUS domestica. FRENCH PRUNES. The Fruit. L. E. D.--The medical effects of the damson and common prunes are, to abate heat, and gently loosen the belly: which they perform by lubricating the passage, and softening the excrement. They are of considerable service in costiveness accompanied with heat or irritation, which the more stimulating cathartics would tend to aggravate: where prunes are not of themselves sufficient, their effects may be promoted by joining with them a little rhubarb or the like; to which may be added some carminative ingredient, to prevent their occasioning flatulencies. Prunelloes have scarce any laxative quality: these are mild grateful refrigerants, and, by being occasionally kept in the mouth, usefully allay the thirst of hydropic persons.

252. PUNICA Granatum. POMEGRANATE. Rind of the Fuit. L. E. D.--This fruit has the general qualities of the other sweet summer fruits, allaying heat, quenching thirst, and gently loosening the belly. The rind is a strong astringent, and as such is occasionally made use of.

253. PYRUS Cydonia. QUINCE. The Kernels. L.--The seeds abound with a mucilaginous substance, of no particular taste, which they readily impart to watery liquors: an ounce will render three pints of water thick and ropy like the white of an egg. A syrup and jelly of the fruit, and mucilage of the seeds, used to be kept in the shops.

254. QUEROUS pedunculata. OAK. Bark. L. E. D.--This bark is a strong astringent; and hence stands recommended in haemorrhagies, alvine fluxes, and other preternatural or immoderate secretions.

255. RHAMNUS catharticus. BUCKTHORN. Berries. L. E.--Buckthorn-berries have a faint disagreeable smell, and a nauseous bitter taste. They have long been in considerable esteem as cathartics; and celebrated in dropsies, rheumatisms, and even in the gout; though in these cases they have no advantage above other purgatives, and are more offensive, and operate more churlishly, than many which the shops are furnished with: they generally occasion gripes, sickness, dry the mouth and throat, and leave a thirst of long duration. The dose is about twenty of the fresh berries in substance, and twice or thrice this number in decoction, an ounce of the expressed juice, or a dram of the dried berries.

256. RHEUM palmatum. TURKEY RHUBARB. Roots. L. E. D.--Rhubarb is a mild cathartic, which operates without violence or irritation, and may be given with safety even to pregnant women and to children. In some people, however, it always occasions severe griping. Besides its purgative quality, it is celebrated for an astringent one, by which it strengthens the tone of the stomach and intestines, and proves useful in diarrhoea and disorders proceeding from a laxity of the fibres. Rhubarb in substance operates more powerfully as a cathartic than any of the preparations of it. Watery tinctures purge more than the spirituous ones; whilst the latter contain in greater perfection the aromatic, astringent, and corroborating virtues of the rhubarb. The dose, when intended as a purgative, is from a scruple to a dram or more.

The Turkey rhubarb is, among us, universally preferred to the East India sort.

The plant is common in our gardens, but their medicinal powers are much weaker than in those from abroad.

RHODODENDRON Chrysanthemum. YELLOW-FLOWERED RHODODENDRON. See No. 290.

257. RHUS Toxicodendron. POISON-OAK. Leaves. L. E.--Of considerable use in paralytic affections, and is much used in the present day.

It is, however, often substituted by the Rhus radicans, which has not the medical properties that this plant has; and it is to be regretted that the leaves of both species are so much alike, that, when gathered, they are not to be distinguished.

258. RICINUS communis. PALMA CHRISTI. Seeds and Oil. L. E. D.--The oil, commonly called nut or castor oil, is got by expression, retains somewhat of the mawkishness and acrimony of the nut; but is, in general, a safe and mild laxative in cases where we wish to avoid irritation, as in those of colic, calculus, gonorrhoea, &c. and some likewise use it as a purgative in worm-cases. Half an ounce or an ounce commonly answers with an adult, and a dram or two with an infant. The castor oil which is imported is not so good as the expressed oil from the nut made in this country. The disagreeable taste is from the coats of the seeds; the best kind is pressed out after the seeds are decorticated.