LECTURES ON MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS;

791

employed with occasional success in preventing the return of the paroxysms.

been

LECTURES

the paroxysms various remedies ON Venesection has have also been proposed. recently been highly recommended in the MATERIA MEDICA AND cold stage by Dr. Mackintosh of EdinTHERAPEUTICS; burgh, to cut short the paroxysm and obNOW IN COURSE OF DELIVERY viate the disposition to its return. VenesecAT THE tion has also been instituted in the hot stage. Warm diluents in the cold stage, and salines WINDMILL-STREET SCHOOL OF MEDICINE in the hot, are otherwise perhaps the only BY safe or useful remedies during the paGEORGE G. SIGMOND, M.D. roxysm of intermittent. There is a circumstance in which the remedies proper during either the intervals or ASSAFŒTIDA.—Division of medicaments which the paroxysm, can be efficiently adminisact on the olfactory nerves; description of tered ; it is where there are, after the viothe plant producing assafœtida; its remelence of the paroxysm is over, but imperfect dial powers. SAGAPENUM. BUBON GALBAremissions : it is then necessary to give botanical description. COMMON RUE ; mild mercurials and aperients, to correct the medicinal qualities. MADDER; characterthe and and secretions regulate bowels ; BLACK AND WHITE MUSwait for a more perfect remission of the istics; effects. TARD. MYRRH. febrile symptoms, and the opportunity of GENTLEMEN:—Linnæus, to whom every giving the cinchona or the arsenic. next object is to relieve the compli- object in creation was a fresh source of recations : the pains and the irritability of the search, was particularly struck with the stomach sometimes require opiates ; the af- effect upon the animal economy of the fection of the spleen is best remedied by aroma issuing from vegetable substances, a local bloodletting, leeches, or cupping. subject which had not altogether escaped To prevent intermittent, and to prevent the attention of medical men, but to which relapses, a mild nutritious diet, a moderate they never directed any material portion of quantity of wine, the quinine, care to guard inquiry. I a thobe instructive volumes writfor the most part, by himself, or by against cold, damp, or exposure to the air, the north-east wind, &c., are the prin- some of his immediate disciples, to which cipal remedies. To prevent relapses espe- the name of"Amænitates Acadenucae" has cially, the patient should keep the secre- been given, are to be found some very curitions and bowels in order; should live on ous essays upon odours. One of the postuthe simplest and most wholesome dishes; latums of Linnæus was, that the qualities take wine moderately, and the quinine oc- of medicines are, in a general way, to be casionally, but especially in the autumn and determined by their effects on the organs of spring, on the slightest feeling of neuralgia smell and of taste; and he likewise laid it or of aching, weary pain, or of any aguish down as a rule, that the sapida, or those which strike the taste more sensibly than the symptom, however slight. Dr. Fordyce observes,—" When intermit- smell, operate upon the vascular system,’ tents cannot be cured in fenny countries, whilst the olida, or those which more sensithey give way easily on the patient’s com- bly influence the olfactory nerves, act on the ing into dry air; as I have observed in pa- medullary or nervous system. He says, tients brought from Lincolnshire to the hosSapida in iibras, olida in nervos agunt." pital, who have been easily cured, although Wahlen, a distinguished pupil of the the same remedies had been used before great leader in the sciences of botany and without success." materia medica, drew up a system founded Precisely the same principles obtain in the upon the idea that odours indicate the quatreatment of various diseases of intermittent lities by which different therapeutic agents character, as hemicrania, brow-ague, neu- are distinguished; and in a paper entitled, ralgia. The secretions must be restored, and "Odores Medicamentorum," in one of the the quinine, the arsenic, &c. must be tried. volumes to which I have alluded, explains these views; he divides them into seven . classes. DR. COLLINS OK TURNING.-" I know oi 1. Aromatici, such as cinnamon, cardano operation more truly dangerous, both to ’ mom, &c. mother and child, than the artificial dilata. 2. Fragrantes, such as saffron, jasmin, tion of the os uteri and turning the child :; &c. 3. Ambrosiaci, such as musk, musk geraand confident I am, that the practitionet &c. who adopts such a line of practice, excepnium, 4. Alliacei, such as onion, leek, garlic, fl’om strict itecessity, will often have abun. assafoetida, galbanum. dant cause to regret his proceedings." 5. Hircini, such as herb Robert.

During

NUM;

to

I

The

night

ten,

.

.

,

*

,

792 6. 7.

tlrree-lobed, Tetri, such as opium, henbane. natiftd, petioled, Nauseosi, such as white and black with incised acute decurrent leaflets, ofa

spreading,

green colour. The footstalks of the He very ingeniously points out the effects lower leaves are flat above with a raised upon the circulation of the three first of line running longitudinally through the these classes ; upon the excretory systems of middle of them; ’The umbels have from the kidneys, the uterus, and the skin, of the twenty to thirty general spreading rays, and two following ; and upon ’the nervous sys- from ten to twenty partial ones, with sub. tem, and upon the abdominal viscera of the sessile florets. The i9orets of the sessile two last ; this idea has been often alluded umbels are fertile, of the. umbel, disserta- mostly aborti’ve.. The petals are yellow, to by continental writers, at first spreading, but tions have appeared. equal, flat, That tire female system is very particu- afterwards reflexed, with the top ascending. larly influenced by odours has been long ob- The filaments are awl-shaped, longertliau served ; the exceeding delicacy of the (’over:, the corolla, curved inwards, and bearing ing of that part of the facial nerves which roundish anthers. Thegermen is inferior, more or less are connected with the olfac- turbinafe, with two reflexed styles, and’an tory and respiratory organs, renders her obtuse stigma. The fruit is oval, com. much more susceptible than man, of the im- pressed, marked with three distinct ribs, pression which is conveyed by the sense of separable into parts. The " Philosophical smell. Some of the medicines that we pos- Transactions" contain this account, and sess, which stimulate the uterine system likewise the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks. into action, are remarkable for their foetid This certainly does not appear to be, the odour, and to this-property has been ascrib- plant which Kasmpfer has described, from ed their power and their rank as emmena- a specimen obtained by Hablize, who ac. gogues. Formerly fumigations of assafoe- companied Gmelin through Russia, to the tida and galbanum were frequently recom- mountains of Persia, and which,’ among mended in any of the affections to which other Persian roots, was transplanted to females were subject ; and, in hysteria they Astrachan; but it would appear that several obtained the highest commendation ; in the species yield a foetid gum, and the sag!tp6present day, however, the great desire is, num most probably is derived from the when these remedies are considered neces- ferula Persica. That a gum resin, called assa, issues from the cut root of several sary, to conceal their nauseous odour. It would appear that Pallas, the celebrat- species of ferula, in the form of milk, and ed Professor of St. Petersburg, had some concretes into. a dry mass, which, from the seeds sent to him of aplant growing amongst first moment, gives forth a most foetid odour, the mountains of Ghilan, in Persia, from there can be now little doubt, and that a which was obtained the gum known to us considerable traffic is carried on in Persia under the name of assafoetida. He with by attention to the best mode of obtaining great assiduity and care watched over the it. It flows much more copiously from roots rearing of some plants from these, and was growing in the plains than on mountains, rewarded for his labours by their arriving and from old plants rather than from young at full vegetation ; of these he transmitted ones. Kæmpfer has detailed the mode by some specimens to some of the botanists of which juice is obtained in the purest form. the day, and amongst them to Dr. John Bontius, however, states, that there are two Hope, at that time Professor of Botany in kinds of assafoetida obtained from the same Edinburgh, the father of the present Profes- plants, the one obtained from the leaves and sor of Chemistry, who is as much distin- stems, the juice of which is expressed and guished for the clearness of his expositiou, dried, whilst the other comes from the root. of the paths of science, as he is for the ur- In the " Ammnitates Academical"will be found all that is interesting upon these banity and elegance of his manners. Two roots were sent; both of these were points, and upon all the circumstances which planted ; one of them died, but the other render the drug either highly powerful in arrived at its full fructification, and from its odour, or exceedingly inert. The root its seed has sprung the plant which has should be four years old before the juice is been delineated by successive botanic obtained, and in the autumn the incisionis writers. It is described by Dr. Hope as made, after the stems and leaves are twisted having branches, naked and spreading, the from the root, which is exposed, by digging three lower ones alternate, and supported away the earth that surrounds it. It is left by the concave membranaceous petiole of for forty days, screened from the sun; then the imperfect leaf; the upper ones in whorls, the top is cut off transversely, and after all of them supporting a many-rayed, sessile, forty-eight hours the juice which has exuded plano-convex, terminal umbel, besides from is scraped off, and another transverse secthree to six branchlets, planted on the out- tion made. The operation is repeated three bide, bearing compound umbels. The stem times, and then the root remains untouched is surrounded at the base with six radical for eight or ten days before another section

hellebore.

deep

pednncled

and. many

leaves, somewhat glaucous;

these

ovate,

are

pin- is made; it is then repeated, and as often as

793 any flow takes place. The gum appears in torubtheir plates with a small quantity of the best practitioners were irregular masses, and is sent to this country it. to prescribe assafoetida very largely, in casks, in mats, and in cases. The pieces vary much in their colour, sometimes they moreespecially those who have written on are of a bright yellow colour, at others dark nervous diseases ; amongst these Boerbrown ; sometimes they are quite white; haave, who speaks in the strongest terms of the best is supposed to be that which is its- efficacy. Whytt, too, had the same opielearest, and of a pale red colour. Its taste nion of its value. In asthma it has been highly spoken of, is somewhat acrid. Its odour is its ’striking characteristic ; it is alliaceous, highly but more particularly in the acute spasmofoetid, and the better the quality, and the die asthma of infancy. A mixture of two fresher it is, the more is the odour given drachms- of assafoetida, an ou-nce of the forth. Kæmpfer says that lie can affirm that liquor of acetate° of ammonia, and three a drachm of that which is recently poured ounces of the aqua pnlegii, given in the forth has a greater foetor than -a hundred dose of a teaspoonful every half hour, is a pounds of that which is sold. F-roin its most valuable remedy, producing neither fretor it has been quaintly designated stercus nausea nor any bad effect. This has Iso been successfully administered as an enema. Diaboli. I will not trouble you with the very In spasmodic cough this often acts as a learned disquisitions which have been en- charm, provided it be not given when hectic tered into as to the knowledge of Diosco- fever, hæmoptysis, or pulmonary disease be rides, of Theopbrastes, of Hippocrates, of present. In epilepsy it has been recomassafretida, which they are supposed to have mended; it is also serviceable where worms used under the name of o&pgr;oç &sgr;&tgr;&lgr;&phgr;&tgr;o&ngr;, or° of infest the intestinal canal: In the torpid that of Pliny and Celsus, who ’speak of state of the bowels to which people advancLaser, or Laserpitium, in such a maniner as ed in life’are subject, this is very useful in to have led the moderns into the belief that the form of pill. The mistura assafoetida: of the London it was of this drug they were discoursing. is made by triturating five drachms Bauhin, Bodæus, Geoffroy, Miller, are the College different authorities to whom I must refer with a pint of water. It is not very likely you; their speculations are. always ingeni- to be ’given internally, but as an enema it ous upon these subjects, but are seldom may with great propriety be recommended. useful. Occasionally when a drug is very The tincture is not much more -agreeable; is made by macerating, for fourteen days, highly lauded by the older writers, an anx- it in two pints of iety to know if we now possess it is very five’ ounces of assafoetida of and rectified strainiug; a spirit but as is the case on this ocwine, praiseworthy, casion, it sometimes excites a great deal of drachm of this is given as a dose. When controversy, without leading to any practical made into pills, five to ten grains may be result. It is true that of the plant of which given, and this has been repeated for several and in the sePliny speaks, he says, that it is so rare days in caries ofofthe bones, with some adsyphilis, it ought to be kept as a public treasure. condary effects The Arabians are supposed to have been ac- vantage. Its advantages as, an emmenagogue quainted with it under the name of altiht, are not very striking when given alone; it, but in the school of Salernum the name as- however, has had many good opinions ex. pressed of it by some able men. It is supesafoetida occurs, Cartheuser, Neumann, Trommsdorff, Pel- rior in power to SAGAPENUM, letier, and Brande °have chemically aualysed this substance ; it seems to be formed of A gum resin, the concrete juice of some growing in Persia, which has an odour resin, of gum, of bassorine, of volatile oil; plant and taste resembling assafœtida. It comes with some traces of malate of lime, some of the phosphates ; it gives up its vir- to us in tears or in masses of an olive or tues to alcohol and to ether, and may be dif- brownish-yellow colour; it is partially solufused through water by trituration, and a ble in water, and in strong alcohol ; it is employed, and in a dose of milky, opaque mixture is formed. Both occasionally has been given. I know nothing spirit and water become imbued with its eight grains of its value, nor am I aware of its having odour on distillation, Notwithstanding the foetor, which is so been tried to any extent by any practitioner very disagreeable to the inhabitants of this upon whose authority I can rely : it was country generally, it is highly prized on this known to Dioscorides, and mentioned by the very account as a condiment. We learn name- it now is known by. It enters into the from Garcias and from Kcempfer that it is a composition of the confection of rue of the very favourite part of the culinary arrange- London and Dublin Colleges, which is genetuents of the Indians, and in some parts of rally considered to have antispasmodic the Continent it is by no means disliked. powers, and to be used as an enema. In Italy the smell is preferred to that GALBANUM. Galbanumis a gum resin which is the musk, aud some of the lovers of good eating, in different parts of Europe, are also of a tree of the umbelliferous

Many of

wont

-

-

and

of BUBON

accustomed

produce

794 in some part of Persia. Lin. ascribes it to the bubon ; Hermann doubts it, and Tournefort and Commelinus attribute it to some other species. Mr. Don believes it to be obtained from a plant which is closely allied to the genus Siler, and upon his authority in our present Pharmacopoeia it is denominated galbanum officinale. In " Regnault’s " Botanique it is called ferule known under the and it is also galbauifere; The name of ferula Africana galbanifera. gum resin is dry, tenacious, when fresh of a whitish colour, but becoming, on being kept for any time, of a yellowish or reddish colour; when it becomes dark brown it has lost much of its power. It is brought to us from Turkey in cases which contain from one to three hundred weight. According to Geotfroy it is an exudation which either takes place spontaneously, or is caused by incision, from the nodes of the plant, when it is three or four years of age. It is preferred in tears, when it is often mixed with the small stalks and the seeds of the plant. It is sometimes brought in larger masses, when little white shining particles are visible, which tinge spirit of wine with a golden Lobel observes that it is very frehue. quently adulterated, but this may easily be ascertained by the deficiency of odour and the want of the general characteristics. Its odour somewhat resembles that of turpentine. Triturated with water it forms a milky solution, but neither water, wine, vinegar nor alcohol completely dissolve it; proof spirit, however, acts upon it and completely dissolves it. It may be rubbed up with mucilage of gum arabic, with syrup of marsh mallow, or with the white of egg. It appreaches in many of its qualities to gum ammoniac, but its striking characteristic is its smell. This is a very useful medicine for interruption of the menstrual excretion, and combined with the cathartic extract and the pills of aloes with myrrh, is one of the most valuable remedies we possess, if it, be persevered in for some time. There is a very good formula, but one which is not particularly agreeable to a delicate stomach, in our Pharmacopoeia, under the name of pilula galbani composita,-it is made thus : -Take of galbanum an ounce, myrrh, sagapenum, of each half an ounce, assafoetida half an ounce, syrup a sufficient quantity; beat them together in an uniform mass ; the dose of this is from ten to twenty grains, and you may conjoin this with great advantage with any of the formula for the aloetic

class, growing nasus

pills. You will occasionally find instances in which, from the occupations in which females are employed, they are not enabled to have recourse to very active remedies, and also it is sometimes necessary not to attack great vehemence. You will, under such circumstances, find that by administering, for a certain number of nights nature with too

pills of this class, you will produce all the good effect that can be expected. About ten days before the proper period is expected, you should give a couple of these pills be. fore your patient retires to rest;occasionally they may also be taken in the morning. They are very uncomfortable to the stomach as well as to the sense of smell and of taste, and you will often hear that they seem to lie at the bottom of the throat, a sensation very often produced by pills, although they are lodged in the stomach. Generally, after a short time a great deal of flatulence is evolved, after which, if there be any nervous sensation, relief is experienced. I have never heard of any bad effect, the result of a long-continued use of such pills; they generally succeed in exciting nature to the

excretion, though some time They are much to be preferred where the circulation is languid, than where there is any febrile rhthym in the pulse, where there is heat and dryness of the sur. face. Inthatlowness of spirits and melannecessary

elapses.

which often attends chlorosis, this is very serviceable remedy. In retention of the menstrual excretion in early life, it is not so often efficacious as in cases of interruption ; but of course this must always depend upon the causes, which are diligently to be inquired into, always remembering that I have inculcated upon yourminds that

choly a

are not to be the leading guides till you have found what ptoduced them. Externally galbanum has been employed as stimulant and suppurative, and a formula for a compound plaster composed of it, of the plaster of lead, of common turpentine, and of the resin of the spruce fir, exists. It is considered to be very useful as a remedy for corns, and mixed with vinegar is applied to corns ; and, according to Sourdet, in the ° L :Art de Soigner les Pieds," it is the most useful remedy that the chiropodistpossesses for these troublesome affections.

symptoms

,

RUTA

GRAVEOLENS—COMMON RDE. "

the herb of grace" of our older its having been employed by the priests insmall bunches to sprinkle the people with holy water, and the fair Ophelia says 11 woe may call it herb of grace on Sundays." It was a very great favourite not only amongst the rural classes in ancient times, but physicians spoke most highly of it. Some affirmed that it was an antidote to all poison, that it checked every species of contagion, and that it put a stop to the ravages of the plague. Murray, of Gottingen, thinks it deserving the name of an alexi. pharmic, and dwells upon its power of put. ting a stop to gangrene when used as a cataplasm or11 as an epithema. Boerhaave exclaims, What medicine can be more efficacious for promoting perspiration, for the cure of hysteric passion, and of epilepsies, and of expelling poisons?" The ancients This is

authors, from

795 colour to vegetable substances, and to animals that feed upon it, than from its mediand poison. Sternberg and Tornius have cal virtues, although it has been employed collected all the authorities in its favour, and by the ancient physicians, and from the they embrace some of the most distinguished earliest records of our science was considernames. Still, however, we place at the pre- ed to have great power in the cure of dysensent day but little faith in its virtues, whe- tery, of scrofula, and the diseases which are ther it is actually little serviceable, or whe- incidental to females ; it, however, is not ther it is from the facility with which it is unworthy some share of our consideration obtained, and our preference to that which in the different diseases in which it has been is with difliculty procured, I will not pre- employed. This plant has been cultivated, tend to say, but certain it is that there are with great assiduity, in Asia, in Holland, in few who would expect to be enabled to Silesia, for the purpose of obtaining the arrest the progress of disease by this re- colouring matter which it imparts to linens, medy, or to place much reliance upon it to cotton, and to wool. Unsuccessful atalone. It is a hardy evergreen shrub which tempts have been made to bring it to perhas been cultivated from time immemorial in fection in this country; but, after a great our gardens, but that which grows wild is deal of labour and of expense, it has been much more acrid, and has a much more found that it is cheaper to import it than to powerful odour than that which we rear. grow it. Duhamel, Gleiditch, Marseille, When fresh gathered it is very apt to excite and different individuals, have pointed out a great deal of irritation and itching of the the best means of cultivating it in their hands, and if at all rubbed upon the eyelids own countries, and of increasing or of dimiby accident is the source of great inflamma- nishing the brilliancy of the colour in dyeing, tion. It has a stimulating, warm, and bitter whilst Professor Pallas has described the taste, and a strong peculiar odour. The art of dyeing, as followed by the Asiatics, leaves on distillation with water, yield a to form the Turkish thread. One of the most singular characteristics pungent volatile oil, on which the virtue of the plant depends ; this is of a yellowish or of this vegetable, and which, at one time, brownish colour, of a less disagreeable excited considerable expectation that beneodour, of a slightly acrid taste, and of little fit might arise from it, is its power of imgravity. Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson has parting a red colour to the bones of those found a strong infusion of it exhibited per animals that feed upon it. This had been anum of great service in relieving the con- observed, and had been mentioned, by Anvulsions of infants, arising from flatulence tonius Mizaldus, in a book which he puband other intestinal irritation; but he ob- lished in the year 1566, at Liege, called serves it may inflame the mucous coat of the "Memorabilium, Utilium ac Jucundorum intestines, and should, therefore, be given Centuriae Novem," in which he states that with caution. It obtained some reputation erythrodanum, commonly called rubia tincin epilepsy, and in the dose of from one to torum, imbues the bones of sheep with a two scruples of the dried leaves was often red and bloody colour, if they are fed upon given. Its odour was at one time strongly it for some days. This, it seems, was forrecommended in hysteria, and more particu- gotten, but was ’again made known from larly where it was associated with obstruc- the accidental circumstance of an English tion of the menstrual excretion. In the dis- gentleman, of the name of Belchier, during eases of females it was a very favourite his dinner at the house of a dyer, observing remedy of Hippocrates. In our old Dispen- that the bones of the pig that was served at satory it is recommended not to be taken the table were of a red colour. On inquiry, in the form of the water, as prepared in the; he found that the swine were fed upon bran shops; but Quincy says "it may be eat boiled with an infusion of madder. This alone fresh gathered, as many do with bread was considered worthy recording in the and butter, or made into a conserve." This " Philosophical Transactions," and Dubagood old plan of taking some of our indige- mel entered upon some experiments, which nous plants has long been abandoned, but it are also related in those volumes, which still at one time was the favourite mode of pro- further confirmed the facts ; for he found cedure. He further observes,-" It is of that three days use of the food was sufficient excellent service in all nervous cases, and to give a red colour to the bones of animals, particularly in such as arise from the womb ; and if they gave up the use of madder their it deterges the glands, and by its viscidity, bones speedily recovered their whiteness. bridles those inordinate motions which fre- On the great value, in a physiological point quently begin there, and affect the whole of view, of this knowledge, I need not dwell; but these experiments, demonstrating the constitution." rapidity with which the substance of the bone is changed, led to a hope that, in many MADDER. RUBIA OR RCB1A TINCTORUM, TINCTORUM,’ diseasedstates ofbones, remedies This has excited more attention from the applied. It is believed now, that there is

highly estimated it, and Hippocrates thought it possessed the power of resisting contagion

might be

facility with

which it communicates its red

an

affinity

between the

phosphate of lime

796 The powers of the Tubia tinctorum, or that matter combines with the phosphate of madder, as an emmenagogue, have been, time, which always constitutes part of the from an early period, the subject of great food. The compound being deposited in eulogrum. ’Fernelius, Hoffmann, and others the bones is supposed, by Dr. Thomas Thom. have very warmly praised it; but it is to son, to occasion the red colour. In Italy, Dr. Home the English practitioner is in. Mattheus Bazanus; in France, Geoflroy, debted for much information as to its value, Fougeroux; in Germany, Ludwig, Losecl(,’and from his clinical experiments we have and others, took up this subject, and va- been led to its frequent use. His ordinary .rious preparations exist in the University practice in interruption of the menstrual seof Gottingen which were made, under the creation was, at first, to give half a drachm of direction of Haller, of the bones of different the drug, powdered ; after two days, two animals, coloured by this plant. From these scruples; and if, in the course of two or it would appear that the teeth, even, might three days, no good effect resulted from its be made of a delicate rose colotlr; it is not use, he increased the quantity to a drachm only the solids of the body that can be thus four times in the course of a day. Dr. Cul. tinged, but the Suids, nay, even the perspi- len tells us, that "he knew many’practi. ration, can be made of a rosy red. There titioners who, after several ineffectual trials are some other vegetables which -possess made with it, have entirely deserted its use. this power; but they are not nmny. The Hertz points out, however, the cases in plant is a native of Turkey, of the South of which it is most likely to be serviceable ; Europe, and of Africa ; it flowers in the it is in those in which there is much debi. month. of June; the root is perennial, com- lity, where the excretion has commenced, posed of many long, thick, succulent fibres, but there is not tone and strength’of consti. almost as long as a man’s little finger, its tution to keep it up, where too much blood. bark principally affording the scarlet tinge ; letting has occurred ; he preferred giving it the leaves are annual, five or six in a whorl, in the tea like infusion, in which Marx and ovate, lanceolate, ciliate, rugged on the others coincide ; this latter physician speaks upper surface, with little recurved prickles very highly of it as a diuretic, and it has on the edges, aad keel stern prickly stems, been known to produce much effect upon herbaceous, annnal, decumbent, widely- the kidneys ; its power upon the adjacent spreading; from the joints of the stalk come parts is certainly very striking. It very out the branches which sustain the flowers; often relieves, more than any remedy that they appear cut into four segments, resem- we know, that sort of strain which is often bling stars, of a yellowish-green colour. The complained of by coal-heavers, by porters, best sort is cultivated at Schow en, in the and by individuals who are in the habit of island of Zealand, and a history of the man- liftiug great weights. In these cases, after ner of cultivating it, as detailed by some having tried all manner of external applica. writers, is very interesting ; and. Mr. Miller tions, anodynes, stimulant strengthening, has gone into the mode followed in this and having done everythingthat could be country, which, could it have been fully supposed to affect the muscuiar tissue, this carried into execution, would have given root, administered in powder, has been most employment to a number of hands from. the effectual. It likewise allays that severe time harvest is over till the spring of the pain to which, previous to the menstrua) following year, besides rendering us inde- period, some females are subject, though it pendent of foreign countries for this im- does not equal camphor in that respect, portant article of the cotton manufacture. which generally acts better than anything The best roots are about the thickness of a else, if given in the form of powder. As goose-quill, semi-transparent, of a reddish au emmenagogue you’will not find the rubia colour, and strong smell. The red colour- tinctorum at all serviceable,if it be given in ing matter is soluble in alcohol, which, on highly plethoric persons, who have had the evaporation, leaves a residuum of a deep- period interrupted in consequence of sudden red. Various shades are obtained by the cold, which is une of the most constant manufacturer Ly the addition of chalk, checks, or of anything which has quickly sugar of lead, nitre, alum, and other sub- acted upon the extreme ends of the excreting stances. An immense revenue is obtained vessels, but where from a want of due nou. from the importation of madder into this rishment, from depressing passions, from country. general causes of debility, the retardation As a remedy for jaundice, this root has occurs; it is the indiscriminate application obtained a high character, and the name of of a remedy which throws doubt upon its Sydenham has been often repeated as an utility, and it is this which induced Mur’ authority for its use ; and cases have been ray, of Gottingen, when speaking of the related in which undoubted powers have discrepancy of opinion as to the value been shown. Sydenham only recommended of this remedy, to exclairn "Tam dinieite it where it has followed in hysteric subjects est, nubes, quae veritatem in dijudicandis upon colic, but he observes that this disease viribus medicamenum obvohunt, dissi.

and the colouring matter of madder. Hence

-

is generally spontaneously cured.

pare."

797

SINAPSIS,—ALBA, NIGRA ; MUSTARD,—WHITE possible effects have followed upon their AND BLACK, indiscriminate use. ’The people in this The speds of these two specie!; of mustard

country, when they once take it into their a remedy is good for something,

differ in their botanical character, but their heads that

,

effects upon the animal economy are very fancy it must be good for everythiag, and similar, the plants are indigenous annuals, swallow it without having the fear of physic death before their eyes‘;but it is growing in our fields, and cultivated in our and ofthat they should know that ulceration gardens ; the black mustard is a taller plant right than the white ; the upper leaves of the of the coats of the stomach and bowels have black are narrow and pendant ; the flowers been produced by it. A strong healthy are pale yellow and small ; the pods small, man on one occasion, swallowed a large quite smooth, pressed close to the’stem, quantity of seeds steeped in gin ; an inflamwhilst in the white the flowers are yellow matory fever came on, and lie was dead in and large, the pods rough and hairy, and three days. In another instance, inflammaare spread on nearly horizontal stalks. tion of the bowels and death succeeded The name sinapis, and evidently the same upon the lodging of these seeds in a portion vegetable, occurs as well in the Greek bo- of the coecum; they kept up an unceasing tamcal works, as in the classic authors of irritation there ; and sometimes after being Rome. Our English word mustard is said kept a week in the bowels, occasioning acute to be derived from mustum ardens, in conse- suffering, they are evacuated without having quence of our originally making our prepa- undergone much change. Mead furnishes ration of mustard, as the French do at this us with a very curious case of ovarian day, from the must of new wines. When dropsy very singularly cured by this remedy, rubbed with very sharp vinegar, an effer- and told us, in the quaintest possible style. In paralysis of the tongue, it has been found vescence is produced ; if it be with new milk. for the table, as a condi- very valuable. As an emmenagogue, the ment, it gives out more of its peculiar taste,unbruised seeds have been swallowed in and is likewise improved in its general ap- doses of half an ounce ; four drachms boiled pearance, but does not keep very long. in a pint of milk, and the mixture then been in its part of this a dose roots, and when the mustard begins tohas also been recommended; sometimes nausea follows upon this treatchange, it gives forth sulphuretted hydro- considerable oftentimes ment and its Of odour and taste I need vomiting. When chlogen. peculiar or amenorrhoca depends upon afaulty say nothing. As a grateful stimulant mustard has some state of the digestive organs, more particu. the stomach, evinced T)y an unnaclaims to our consideration ; it imparts a moderate watmth to the -stomach, excites appetite, loathing for ordinary food, the secreting vessels into action, and hence and a partiality for chalk, for ashes, and for causes a quick imbibition after digestion. indigestible substances, this is useful, more or any Murray says, from personal experience, that particularly if magnesia, rhubarb, it excites hilarity, and that he always felt gentle stomachical evacuant be given at the time; but you will derive no benefit happier after using it; and this he ascribes same from it in other states productive of the ab. to the carbonic acid which is extricated, He doubts whether it has rendered the me- sence of the excretion. more which is a common tenacious, mory MYRRH. opinion. Haller thinks its use predisposes The tree that furnishes this gum resin has the body to acute disease. It is, however, harmless in moderate quantities, and though been determined by Ehrenberg to be the champagne is a better mode of giving car- balsamo dendron, and our College has taken bonic acid to the stomach when it is requir- his authority. It has been described by ed, it has this property, and hence is parti- Nees Von Essenbeck, in his valuable work, to be a small tree, with a stunted trunk, cnlarly useful in some states to females. the ships from which Ehrenberg saw the myrrh colBy the old laws of employed in the service of their country, lected; the juice exudes spontaneously, and were obliged to carry a certain quantity of concretes upon the bark, which is whitish It is at first oily; it then concretes; mustard, which was supposed to exercise a specific power over scurvy ; it appears that it is at first yellowish white, then becomes at the siege of Rochelle, the recovery of a and at last, when perfectly dry, vast number of individuals who suffered red. The tree is a native of Arabia Felix; from the most frightful symptoms of scurvy, its aromatic odour has been long prized, as was attributed to the employment of this as well as its taste, and it has the power of a remedy ; in some of the worst cases of the materially increasing the action of the pulse African cachexia it has according to Adair when swallowed, a few grains being suffibeen very serviceable. The unbruised cient for this purpose; it is hence much used seeds have lately come very much into in various states of languid circulation, but fashion, and have been used as a popular becomes very injurious where inflammatory remedy ; but in manv, instances the worst symptoms are present. It promotes the se-

prepared

Traces of sulphurhave

B

observed ,

’, strained,and a fourth rosis,

larly of

tural I

Holland,

gray.

golden ;

as

798 vision for playing, dancing, and concert. rooms, not to forget a very pretty theatre, and its daily performances, from the begin. ning of July almost till the end of Au. gust, that is to say, during that crowded mours, but its most celebrated virtues are period of the season which usually is also as a great cleanser and strengthener of the enlivened by the presence of the reigning womb ; it promotes the menses, and indeed family, and its kindness towards the fo. is good in all hysterical affections, either in reigners. In adopting the definition, according to pills, boluses, or tinctures." It is now very seldom prescribed alone, but is given in which "mineral waters are such as contain combination with other remedies, for it is a proportion of medicinal substances suffibelieved by many only to promote the ope- ciently great to exert on the animal eco, ration of other more active agents, for even nomy a particular influence, dependent on in half-drachm doses it has not restored the the nature and share of the said substances," excretion. Cartheuser has written a work, it appears that Pyrmont is in possession of a De Eximiâ Myrrhas virtute Medicâ," rich variety of cold springs; there are none which has served as the basis on which has higher than 57° Fahrenheit, or 20° Reaumur. been founded most of the essays that have And with regard to the specific classifica. tion which, founded on the peculiar differ. appeared. ence of the respective chemical ingredients, distinguishes the four classes of acidulous, A FEW REMARKS sulphrtreous, matriatic, and chalybeate waters, ON it is only on the two last, but particularly on the chalybeate, that the fame of Pyrtnont PYRMONT, THE MOST ANCIENT AND CELEBRATED SPA OF rests; for hitherto no sulphureous source has been discovered, while a single aciduNORTHERN GERMANY; With a Chemico-Pneumatic Table of its Springs. lous one (Sauerling) does not present a che. mical or medicinal character sufficiently BY powerful to be mentioned here in any other DR. RICHARD HARNIER. way than as a very refreshing and agreeable

cretiong generally, and, as Quincy observes, In diseases arising from inactivity, and is very serviceable in languid cases, those female disorders that proceed from a cold, mucous, sluggish indisposition of its hu-

"

(Communicated in English by

the

Author.)

I.-Locality and Enumeration of the S’prings, PYRMONT, the capital of

a small principa united for more than two centuries tc the domains of the sovereign Prince 01 Waldeck, s situated at about forty English miles from Hanover, at fifty from Hesse Cassel, and at a hundred from Cologne, in a fertile and smiling valley, which, embellished by the small and gentle Emmer river; is surrounded by a range of undulating wooded hills, and protected by them from the cutting blasts of the nortli and east. Thus its climate is very temperate and healthy, whilst the rich vegetation of the soil, and the variety of its spots and views,

lity,

to the pretensions of the to the pleasures of the prome-

answer

equally

peasant

as

nade.

Moreover, the industry of the inhabitas well as the care of the Government,

ants,

strive to

satisfy all reasonable wants and people as come there for the improvement of their health, or for the twofold enjoyment, as they may like the one or the other, of rural tranquillity, or of animated intercourse with strangers. Concerning wishes* of such

the latter scope, *

there is abundant

pro-

beverage. There are reckoned at Pyrmont five dif. ferent chalybeate springs, commonly distinguished by the names of the principal or drinking spring, the hathing spring, the ancient bathing spring, the spring for the eyes, and the uetc spring· Although they are ge. nerally homogeneous, and, at least, the for’ mer four, at a small local distance from each other, still these springs present some proportional differences, as will be found noticed in the subjoined table. The principal, or drinking spring, anciently called the holy, is undoubtedly that which has given to Pyrmont its first exist. ence ; for it has for centuries annually at. tracted a crowd of sick people from the neighbourhood as well as from distant coun. tries, and furnishes moreover that remark. able quantity of water exported every year to all parts of Europe, and to the most reo mote regions.* And at this time no other mineral spring is known which is richet than this is in carbonic acid gas. The bathing spring, anciently called the boiling (Brodelbrunnen), on account of the noise of its gaseous bubbling, gushes with such force as to carry along with it even some hydro-oxide of iron towards the surface, which, when the weather is calm, finds itself usually covered with a gaseous stratum, from 14 to 18 inches high, a hundred cubic inches of which contain about forty

Besides the great lodging-house, which, like some smaller inns of the borough, oilers a first abode, as well as the choice of staying there, the stranger finds in almost every * It bursts forth in a volume of about house rooms and apartments of all descrip. tions and prices. twenty-two pounds a minute.