writers state that the seeds are more heating than the leaves, but that the latter possess a more anodyne virtue, and that the curative pow ers of the root excel those of the other parts. Avicenna says that it quickens the digestion; and, according to others, a decoction of the seeds, besides being carminative, has also expectorant virtues, and relieves dysuria.'

ACTION AND USES.-The operation of fennel-seed is the same as that of the carminatives generally. It stimulates the digestive function, and, according to Mitscherlich, increases the renal, cutaneous, and mucous secretions, and also that of the milk. Six drachms of the volatile oil were required to destroy a rabbit; and the animal perished after symptoms of distress, followed by general insensibility and loss of muscular power. It discharged urine frequently and abundantly. Besides being used, like other stomachic stimulants, for the relief of flatulent colic and nausea, in which cases it is sometimes associated with magnesia or bicarbonate of soda, fennel is often prescribed along with laxative medicines, in order to prevent their griping. German physicians employ it in slight catarrhal affections of the bronchia, and administer it to nursing-women to increase the secretion of milk.

ADMINISTRATION.-The preparation of fennel-seed most frequently employed is the infusion, made with two drachms of the seed to half a pint of boiling water, and administered in doses of one or two teaspoonfuls to an infant, and of a wineglassful to an adult. Fennel-water may be prescribed in the same doses as the infusion. The volatile oil is sometimes employed in doses of from one to five or ten drops, on sugar or suspended in some appropriate vehicle.

GAULTHERIA.-PARTRIDGE BERRY.

DESCRIPTION.-The leaves of Gaultheria procumbens, a native plant of North America, growing in sandy soils from Canada to Georgia. Various popular names have been given it, such as Winter-green, Partridge-berry, Mountain-tea, Deer-berry, Chicker-berry, &c. It is a small, indigenous, evergreen plant, with ovate, shining, and coriaceous leaves, and white, bell-shaped, or ovate flowers, which are succeeded by fleshy scarlet berries, containing many seeds. Every portion of the plant has a peculiar aromatic taste and smell which have been compared to those of orange flowers, and which are associated with astringency in the leaves, and some sweetness in the fruit. The former

EBN BAITHAR, ed. Sontheimer, i. 486.

qualities appear to depend upon a volatile oil (oleum gaultheria), which is the heaviest of all the essential oils, having the sp. gr. 1.173. When fresh it is colorless, but it becomes yellowish or brownish by time. It has a sweetish, but burning and aromatic taste, and the peculiar odor of the plant.

ACTION AND USES.-Gaultheria is stimulant, aromatic, and somewhat astringent, a combination of qualities which have led to its being compared to cinnamon. A case is quoted by Beck,' of a number of soldiers at Quebec, poisoned by a tea made of andromeda, gaultheria, and ledum. It produced vertigo, weakness, vomiting, cold sweats, and in one case insensibility. Dr. Gallagher records the case of a boy nine years old, who, after taking about half an ounce of the oil of gaultheria, was seized with severe vomiting, purging, epigastric pain, hot skin, frequent pulse, slow and labored respiration, dulness of hearing, and an uncontrollable desire for food. He continued very ill for several days, but in two weeks had recovered his health. In the dose of an ounce it is said to have several times been fatal. The leaves of gaultheria have been at times employed by the country people as a substitute for tea, and they are extensively used in domestic medicine to prepare an infusion which is given in chronic bowel complaints, and as an emmenagogue. Physicians more frequently prescribe the oil to conceal the taste of nauseous medicines. It gives its peculiar flavor to the compound syrup of sarsaparilla. It may be used for the same purposes as the other essential oils already mentioned, and particularly as a carminative; but it is less grateful to the stomach than other articles of its class.

HEDEOMA.-AMERICAN PENNYROYAL.

DESCRIPTION. The herb of Hedeoma pulegioides, an indigenous annual plant abounding in dry sterile places in all parts of the United States. It is about a foot high, much branched, with small, opposite acutely oval or oblong-lanceolate leaves, which are somewhat rough and pubescent. The flowers are axillary, very small, and of a pale blue color. The whole herb contains a volatile oil which diffuses for some distance its powerful aromatic odor, which is still very strong even in the dried state of the plant. Pennyroyal imparts its virtues to hot water, but more fully to alcohol; they depend upon the oil,

1 Med Jurisp., 10th ed., ii. 885.

VOL. I.-38

2 Phil. Med. Examiner, viii. 347.

which may be procured by distillation. It is of a light yellow color when recent, and has a specific gravity of 0.948.

ACTION AND USES.-Pennyroyal is a stimulant aromatic, and may be used to relieve nausea from unwholesome food, or flatulent distension of the primæ viæ and the colic dependent upon it. It may also be employed to flavor purgative and other draughts which tend to gripe or to excite nausea. Emmenagogue virtues are popularly attributed to it, and of these it possesses as much as, if not more than, other herbs of its class. In warm infusion it often succeeds in bringing on the menstrual discharge when it is delayed by temporary causes and particularly by the operation of cold. A warm foot or hip-bath should be prescribed at the same time. In like manner, by a stimulant operation, warm pennyroyal tea is often an efficient diaphoretic remedy in the forming stage of catarrh and of muscular rheumatism. The infusion, made with half an ounce of the plant to a pint of water, may be given in doses of two or more fluidounces every hour. The volatile oil (OLEUM HEDEOME) may be used internally for the same purposes as the plant; in doses of from two to ten drops, or externally as an ingredient of rubefacient liniments. It is said to have been sometimes employed for the purpose of producing abortion, but we are acquainted with no well authenticated case of its attaining this object.

European pennyroyal (MENTHA PULEGIUM) is identical in action with peppermint, but as its odor and taste are not so agreeable, it is much less used. (Neligan.)

LAVANDULA.-LAVENDER.

DESCRIPTION.-Lavandula vera whose flowers form the officinal medicine under consideration, is a small shrub which is a native of Southern Europe and the North of Africa, but is cultivated as a garden plant all over Europe and this country. Its main stem is woody, but terminates above in numerous herbaceous, erect, quadrangular branches, which are furnished with many linear leaves. The flowers, which are in spikes, are of a purplish-gray color, and have a powerful but refreshing aroma, and a warm, bitter aromatic taste. These qualities depend chiefly upon an essential oil, which is obtained by distillation, and is associated with a bitter principle and with tannic acid.

HISTORY.-The name of this plant is of Italian origin, and that under which it was employed by the ancients is unknown. Matthiolus, however, describes it by the name of Nardus Italicus, and says that it is used as a remedy for epilepsy, apoplexy, spasms, and paralysis;

that it also is stomachic, and strengthens the liver and spleen, and is emmenagogue and ecbolic, diuretic, and carminative. He further speaks of the peculiarly penetrating odor of its essential oil.' Alston repeats the same list of virtues attributed to this plant."

ACTION AND USES.-It is asserted that lavender flowers, in large doses, occasion colicky pains and excite the circulatory system. Strumpf states that a drachm of the volatile oil of lavender given to a rabbit, caused the animal to utter loud cries, and breathe hurriedly, and presently to die in convulsions, without any trace of a local action of the poison remaining in the stomach.3

Lavender alone is hardly ever employed as a medicine; the only use to which it is applied is for scenting clothes by scattering the spikes among them, or placing the flowers inclosed in muslin bags in the usual receptacles of clothing. The oil of lavender (OLEUM LAVANDULE) may be given internally in doses of four or five drops to allay nervous agitation or relieve nervous headache. The spirit of lavender (SPIRITUS LAVANDULÆ), made by distilling alcohol from the flowers, or by dissolving the oil in alcohol in the proportion of a fluidounce of the former to a gallon of the latter, is used for the same purposes occasionally, but much more frequently as a refreshing perfume in the sick-room, or as an article for the toilet. The compound spirit of lavender (SPIRITUS LAVANDULE COMPOSITUS) is an old and famous medicine of the English Pharmacopoeia. It originally contained as many as thirty ingredients, but is now made by digesting cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and red saunders in a mixture of the spirit of lavender and spirit of rosemary. It is a popular and very efficient remedy for flatulent colic, and for gastric uneasiness, and the accompanying general depression produced by laborious digestion. It may be added to bitter tonic infusions to increase their efficacy and to correct their taste. The dose is a fluidrachm.

MELISSA.-BALM.

DESCRIPTION.-Melissa officinalis, a native of the South of Europe, is an herb from one to two feet high, consisting of several quadrangular stems rising from a perennial fibrous root. The upper leaves are pubescent and ovate, the lower, cordate. The flowers, which are grouped on short axillary peduncles, are white or yellow. Balm has a peculiar fragrance in the fresh state, which has been compared to Liv. i. chap. vi. 2 Lectures, ii. 159. 9 Handbuch, i. 633.

that of lemons; but it is nearly inodorous when dry. The taste is slightly aromatic and bitterish. Its qualities depend upon an essential oil which has the peculiar smell and taste of the fresh plant in a high degree. It also contains bitter and astringent principles.

HISTORY.-Dioscorides derives the name of this plant from the fact that bees are very fond of its flowers, and make the best honey (μɛλ) from them. He speaks of the virtues of the bruised leaves when applied to the stings of insects, &c., of fomentations made with them to provoke the menstrual discharge, of the tea as a mouth-wash for toothache, &c.1 The Arabians attributed wonderful virtues to this simple herb. Avicenna declared that it possesses an astonishing power of cheering and strengthening the heart. Its perfume, and its attenuating and astringent properties, render it peculiar. They do good to all the organs, clearing the brain, and purifying the blood, and are serviceable in all atrabilious and mucous disorders. When chewed, the leaves sweeten the breath and allay thirst; they also quicken digestion, and relieve nausea and faintness. Another writer says that balm dispels drowsiness, and expels flatus from the stomach and bowels. But, as if to throw doubt upon such opinions, another Arabian author gravely assures us that among its surprising qualities is this-that if its root, leaves, and seeds inclosed in a bag are worn about the person, they will form an amulet to secure the affections of one's friends, to make all his undertakings succeed, and to render him joyous and happy so long as he wears it.2

USES.-Balm tea is a popular and most refreshing drink when made from the fresh plant and taken cold; and the hot infusion of the dried plant is one of the mildest that can be used to assist the operation of diaphoretic medicines. It may be made with from half an ounce to an ounce of the herb in a pint of water.

MYRISTICA.-NUTMEG.

MACIS.-Mace.

DESCRIPTION.-Nutmeg is the kernel of the fruit of Myristica moschata, a native tree of the Molucca Islands, but now cultivated on the Indian continent and the adjacent islands, in the West Indies, and South America. It is a handsome tree of from twenty to thirty feet in height, with leaves bright green upon their upper surface and whitish beneath,

Op. cit., lib. iii. ch. c.

2 EBN Baithar, ed. Sontheimer, i. 109.