The Botanist's Companion Part 21

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 a.s.sures 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 quant.i.ties 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 quant.i.ty 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-graec.u.m. FOENUGREEK. The Seeds.--They are of a yellow colour, a rhomboidal figure; have a disagreeable strong smell, and a mucilaginous taste. Their princ.i.p.al use is in cataplasms, fomentations, and the like, and in emollient glysters.

406. VERBASc.u.m 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 superst.i.tion 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 superst.i.tion is pa.s.sing 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.

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 ill.u.s.trations, 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 quant.i.ty 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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sed 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.

From hence we may naturally infer, that the usual mode in which the generality of herbs are dried, is not so good for the purpose, as one would be if contrived on similar principles, as, during the length of time necessary for the purpose, a great deal of the princ.i.p.al parts of the plants must of course be evaporated and lost; for little else is regarded than to dry them so as to prevent putrefaction. Although the generality of herbs met with are prepared as above described, yet in such articles as Digitalis, Hyoscyamus, Conium, Toxicodendron, &c., where the quant.i.ty necessary for a dose is so small, and so much depends on its action, pract.i.tioners are often obliged to prepare it themselves.

I shall therefore relate the following mode as the best adapted to that purpose. The Digitalis is prepared by collecting the leaves in the summer, and stripping them off from the foot-stalks; these should be then carefully exposed to a slow heat, and the watery extract slowly thrown off; in which they should not be exposed to any great degree of heat, which by its action will deprive them of their fine green colour.

When this is effected, the whole may be put in contact with a heat that will enable the operator to reduce it to a fine powder. And in order to keep it with its virtues perfect, it will be necessary to deprive it as much as possible of the influence of air and light. Hence it is preserved in close gla.s.s bottles which are coated, and also placed in a dark part of the elaboratory. Now, it is necessary that all plants intended to be used in a dried state, should be prepared and protected in a similar manner; and although it may be considered as a superfluous trouble, so far as regards the more common kinds, particular attention should be paid to these, when a small quant.i.ty is a dose, and an over-dose a certain poison.