The Botanist's Companion Part 12

201. DAUCUS Carota. CULTIVATED CARROT. The Roots. L. E. D.--The expressed juice, or a decoction of these roots, has been recommended in calculous complaints, and as a gargle for infants in aphtous affections or excoriations of the mouth; and a poultice of sc.r.a.ped carrots has been found an useful application to phagedenic ulcers, and to cancerous and putrid sores.

202. DELPHINIUM Staphis Agria. STAVES AGRIA. The Seeds. L. D.-- Stavesacre was employed by the ancients as a cathartic, but it operates with so much violence both upwards and downwards, that its internal use has been, among the generality of pract.i.tioners, for some time laid aside. It is chiefly employed in external applications for some kinds of cutaneous eruptions; and for destroying lice and other insects; insomuch that it has from this virtue received its name in different languages, Herba pedicularis, Herbe aux poux, Lauskraut, Lousewort.

203. DIANTHUS caryophyllus. CLOVE-PINK. The Petals. E.--These flowers are said to be cardiac and alexipharmac. Simon Paulli relates, that he has cured many malignant fevers by the use of a de-coction of them; which he says powerfully promoted sweat and urine without greatly irritating nature, and also raised the spirits and quenched thirst. The flowers are chiefly valued for their pleasant flavour, which is entirely lost even by light coction. Lewis says, the College directed the syrup, which is the only officinal preparation of them, to be made by infusion.

204. DIGITALIS purpurea. FOXGLOVE. The Leaves. L. E. D.--The leaves of Foxglove have a nauseous taste, but no remarkable smell. They have been long used externally to sores and scrophulous tumours with considerable advantage. Its diuretic effects, for which it is now so deservedly received into the Materia Medica, were entirely overlooked. To this discovery Dr. Withering has an undoubted claim; and the numerous cures of dropsy related by him and other pract.i.tioners of established reputation, afford incontestable proofs of its diuretic powers, and of its practical importance in the cure of those diseases. The dose of dried leaves in powder is from one grain to three twice a-day; but if a liquid medicine be preferred, a dram of the dried leaves is to be infused for four hours in half a pint of boiling water, adding to the strained liquor an ounce of any spiritous water. One ounce of this infusion given twice a-day is a medium dose; it is to be continued in these doses till it either acts upon the kidneys; the stomach, or the pulse, (which it has a remarkable power of lowering,) or the bowels.-- Woodville's Med. Bot. p. 221.

This is now become a very popular medicine, but if used incautiously is attended with danger. Medical pract.i.tioners should make themselves perfectly acquainted with this plant, as the leaves are the only part used; and their not being readilly discriminated when separated from the flowers, several accidents have occurred. In the Gent. Mag. for September 1815 is recorded a very extraordinary mistake, where the life of a child was sacrificed to the ignorance of a person who administered this instead of Coltsfoot; a plant so very dissimilar, that, had it not been well authenticated, I should not have believed the fact.

Similar Plants.--Verbasc.u.m nigrum; V. Thapsus; Cynoglossum officinale, or, after the above mistake, any other plant with a lanceolate leaf, we fear, may be confounded with it.

205. ERYNGIUM maritimum. SEA-HOLLY. Roots. D.--The roots are slender, and very long; of a pleasant sweetish taste, which on chewing for some time is followed by a light degree of aromatic warmth and acrimony. They are accounted aperient and diuretic, and have also been celebrated as aphrodisiac: their virtues, however, are too weak to admit them under the head of medicines. The candied root is ordered to be kept in the shops.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

206. FERULA a.s.safoetida. a.s.sAFOETIDA. Gum. L. E. D.--This drug has a strong fetid smell, somewhat like that of garlick; and a bitter, acrid, biting taste. It looses with age of its smell and strength, a circ.u.mstance to be particularly regarded in its exhibition. It consists of about one-third part pure resin, and two-thirds of gummy matter; the former soluble in rectified spirit, the other in water. Proof-spirit dissolves almost the whole into a turbid liquor; the tincture in rectified spirit is transparent.

a.s.safoetida is the strongest of the fetid gums, and of frequent use in hysteric and different kinds of nervous complaints. It is likewise of considerable efficacy in flatulent colics; and for promoting all the fluid secretions in either s.e.x. The ancients attributed to this medicine many other virtues which are at present not expected from it.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

207. FICUS Carica. COMMON FIG. Fruit. L. D.--The recent fruit completely ripe is soft, succulent, and easily digested, unless eaten in immoderate quant.i.ties, when it is apt to occasion flatulency, pain of the bowels, and diarrhoea. The dried fruit is pleasanter to the taste, and is more wholesome and nutritive. Figs are supposed to be more nutritious by having their sugar united with a large portion of mucilaginous matter, which, from being thought to be of an oily nature, has been long esteemed an useful demulcent and pectoral; and it is chiefly with a view of these effects that they have been medicinally employed.

208. FRAXINUS Ornus. MANNA. L. E. D.--There are several sorts of Manna in the shops. The larger pieces, called Flake Manna, are usually preferred; though the smaller grains are equally as good, provided they are white, or of a pale yellow colour, very light, of a sweet not unpleasant taste, and free from any visible impurities.

Manna is a mild agreeable laxative, and may be given with saftey to children and pregnant women: nevertheless, in some particular const.i.tutions it acts very unkindly, producing flatulencies and distension of the viscera.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

209. GENTIANA lutea. YELLOW GENTIAN. Root. L. D.--This root is a strong bitter, and, as such, very frequently made use of in practice: in taste it is less exceptionable than most of the other substances of this cla.s.s: infusions of it, flavoured with orange peel, are sufficiently grateful. It is the capital ingredient in the bitter wine; and a tincture and infusion of it are kept in the shops.

Lewis mentions a poisonous root being mixed among some of the Gentian brought to London; the use of which occasioned in some instances death.

This was internally of a white colour, and void of bitterness. There is no doubt but this was the root of the Veratrum alb.u.m, a poisonous plant so similar, that it might readily be mistaken for it.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

210. GEUM urbanum. COMMON AVENS. Root. D.--This has a warm, bitterish, astringent taste, and a pleasant smell, somewhat of the clove kind, especially in the spring, and when produced in dry warm soils. Parkinson observes, that such as is the growth of moist soils has nothing of this flavour. This root has been employed as a stomachic, and for strengthening the tone of the viscera in general: it is still in some esteem in foreign countries, though not taken notice of among us. It yields, on distillation, an elegant odoriferous essential oil, which concretes into a flaky form.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

Similar Plants.--Geum rivale; G. intermedium.

211. GLYCYRRHIZA glabra. LIQUORICE. Root. L. D.--This is produced plentifully in all the countries of Europe: that which is the growth of our own is preferable to such as comes from abroad; this last being generally mouldy, which this root is very apt to become, unless kept in a dry place.

The powder of liquorice usually sold is often mingled with flower, and, I fear, too often with substances not quite so wholesome. The best sort is of a brownish yellow colour (the fine pale yellow being generally sophisticated) and of a very rich sweet taste, much more agreeable than that of the fresh root. Liquorice is almost the only sweet that quenches thirst.

This root is a very useful pectoral, and excellently softens acrimonious humours, at the same time that it proves gently detergent: and this account is warranted by experience. It is an ingredient in the pectoral syrup, pectoral troches, the compound lime waters, decoction of the woods, compound powder of gum tragacanth, lenitive electuary, and theriaca. An extract is directed to be made from it in the shops; but this preparation is brought chiefly from abroad, though the foreign extract is not equal to such as is made with proper care among ourselves.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

212. GRATIOLA officinalis. HEDGE-HYSSOP. Herb. E. D.--The leaves have a very bitter disagreeable taste: an infusion of a handful of them when fresh, or a dram when dried, is said to operate strongly as a cathartic.

Kramer reports that he has found the root of this plant a medicine similar in virtue to Ipecacuanha.

Similar Plants.--Lythrum Salicaria; Scutellaria galericulata.

213. h.e.l.lEBORUS niger. BLACK h.e.l.lEBORE. Root. L.--The tase of h.e.l.lebore is acrid and bitter. Its acrimony, as Dr. Grew observes, is first felt on the tip of the tongue, and then spreads immediately to the middle, without being much perceived on the intermediate part: on chewing it for a few minutes, the tongue seems benumbed, and affected with a kind of paralytic stupor, as when burnt by eating any thing too hot.

Our h.e.l.lebore is at present looked upon princ.i.p.ally as an alterative, and in this light is frequently employed, in small doses, for attenuating viscid humours, promoting the uterine and urinary discharges, and opening inveterate obstructions of the remoter glands: it often proves a very powerful emmenagogue in plethoric habits, where steel is ineffectual or improper. An extract made from this root with water, is one of the mildest, and for the purposes of a cathartic the most effectual preparation of it: this operates sufficiently, without occasioning the irritation which the pure resin is accompanied with. A tincture drawn with proof-spirit contains the whole virtue of the h.e.l.lebore, and seems to be one of the best preparations of it: this tincture, and the extract, used to be kept in the shops. The College of Edinburgh used to make this root an ingredient in the purging cephalic tincture, and compound tincture of jalap; and its extract, in the purging deobstruent pills, gamboge pills, the laxative mercurial pills, and the compound cathartic extract.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

Similar Plant.--h.e.l.leborus viridis.

214. h.e.l.lEBORUS foetidus. BEARSFOOT. Leaves. L.--The root is a strong cathartic; it destroys worms, and is recommended in different species of mania. It is commonly subst.i.tuted for that of the h.e.l.leborus viridis, which is a more dangerous medicine. Hill's Herbal, p. 32. Great care ought to be used in the administering this plant: many instances of its dreadful effects are related. (See Poisonous Plants.)

Similar Plant.--h.e.l.leborus viridis.

215. HORDEUM distichon. PEARL BARLEY. Seeds. L. E.--Barley, in its several states, is more cooling, less glutionous, and less nutritious than wheat or oats; among the ancients, decoctions of it were the princ.i.p.al aliment, and medicine, in acute diseases. The London College direct a decoction of pearl barley; and both the London and Edinburgh make common barley an ingredient in the pectoral decoction.

216. HUMULUS Lupulus. THE HOP.--The flowers and seed-vessels are used in gout and rheumatism, under the form of infusion in boiling-water. The powder formed into an ointment with lard, is said to ease the pain of open cancer. A pillow stuffed with hops is an old and successful mode of procuring sleep in the watchfulness of delirious fever.

217. HYOSCYAMUS niger. HENBANE. Leaves and Seeds. L. E.--Henbane is a strong narcotic poison, and many instances of its deleterious effects are recorded by different authors; from which it appears, that any part of the plant, when taken in sufficient quant.i.ty, is capable of producing very dangerous and terrible symptoms. It is however much employed in the present days as an anodyne. Dr. Withering found it of great advantage in a case of difficult deglut.i.tion. Stoerck and some others recommend this extract in the dose of one grain or two; but Dr. Cullen observes, that he seldom discovered its anodyne effects till he had proceeded to doses of eight or ten grains, and sometimes to fifteen and even to twenty. The leaves of Henbane are said to have been applied externally with advantage, in the way of poultice, to resolve scirrhous tumours, and to remove some pains of the rheumatic and arthritic kind.

Similar Plants.--Verbasc.u.m Lychnites; V. nigrum.

The roots of the Henbane are to be distinguished by their very powerful and narcotic scent.

218. HYSSOPUS officinalis. HYSSOP. The Herb. L. E. D.--The leaves of Hyssop have an aromatic smell, and a warm pungent taste. Besides the general virtues of aromatics, they are particularly recommeded in humoral asthmas, coughs, and other disorders of the breast and lungs; and said to notably promote expectoration.