often sustained by want of tone in the system generally, and by debility of the digestive organs in particular. In such cases, as appears in the history of many tonic and stimulant medicines, any strong excitant is occasionally adequate to the cure. Under circumstances like those referred to, the association of black pepper with quinia or bark is probably more efficacious than the administration of either medicine alone. ADMINISTRATION.-Powdered pepper may be given as a stomachic stimulant in doses of from five to twenty grains, or as a condiment freely mixed with the food. As an anti-periodic, eight or ten grains of whole pepper may be prescribed two or three times a day. The ethereal fluid extract (EXTRACTUM PIPERIS FLUIDUM), or the oil of black pepper, may be directed as a stimulant in doses of one or two minims, properly guarded in emulsion or pill. Piperin may be given in doses of from one to ten grains. ROSMARINUS.-ROSEMARY. DESCRIPTION.-Rosmarinus officinalis, the plant whose tops consti tute this medicine, is a native of Europe near the shores of the Mediterranean, but it is cultivated in other European countries and in the United States. It is a small evergreen shrub with numerous erect branches, and opposite, sessile, linear leaves, smooth and green upon the upper surface, and white and downy beneath. The flowers, of a pale blue color, are gathered into small clusters in the axilla of the upper leaves. The flowering tops have a strong and peculiar odor due to a volatile oil. They are eagerly sought as food for bees, and it is to them that the honey of Narbonne owes the flavor for which it is so justly famous. The volatile oil is yielded by distillation of the fresh tops in the proportion of from one-fourth of one to one per cent. It is a transparent white or amber colored liquid, and sometimes even greenish, with the characteristic odor of rosemary, and an acrid, aromatic, and burning taste. On exposure to the air it deposits a large quantity of stearoptene. HISTORY.-Rosemary was very anciently known, and employed in medicine. Theophrastus describes the stimulating properties of its herb and root, and ascribes to it emmenagogue, diuretic, and galactopoietic virtues.' To this account Dioscorides subjoins that it is discutient, is good for hæmorrhoids and other diseases of the anus, and De Nat. Plant., lib. ix. cap. xii. relieves colic.' An Arabian writer, besides mentioning the virtues here attributed to the plant, states that it is carminative, removes obstructions of the liver and spleen, is also expectorant, and useful in cases of asphyxia, of dyspnoea, and dropsy. Murray styles it one of the most potent aromatics of its class, in stimulating and sustaining the nervous system, and in dissipating and resolving swellings and indurations. He speaks of its remarkable power as a diaphoretic, emmenagogue, and carminative; says that it is justly esteemed in nervous disorders, such as loss of memory, vertigo, and paralysis; and adds that it is regarded as efficacious in humid asthma, and in strumous enlargement of the cervical glands. A distilled spirit in which rosemary is associated with lavender flowers, or with sage and ginger, has become famous under the name of Aqua Hungarica. It is a delightful perfume, but has also marvellous virtues attributed to it by the credulous. ACTION AND USES.-According to Strumpf, the oil of rosemary is an active poison, even more so than oil of savine or of mustard. In the dose of a scruple it destroyed a rabbit after occasioning spasms." A case of death is recorded in a child three or four years old, from a mixture of six measures of this oil, and two of oil of wormseed, given in repeated doses of a tablespoonful.5 Rosemary is used medicinally to relieve colic, to promote menstruation, and allay slight nervous derangement depending upon debility. The oil is employed as an ingredient of ointments and liniments intended to be applied by friction to rheumatic or paralyzed muscles, to swellings left by inflammation, or produced by chronic scrofulous enlargement of the glands, to bruises, sprains, &c., and to the scalp to promote the growth of the hair. The vapor of the oil produced by rubbing a few drops between the palms of the hands, and then allowed to come in contact with the eyes, has been used with advantage in weakness of these organs from nervous exhaustion. ADMINISTRATION.-An infusion of rosemary prepared with from two to four drachms of the plant to half a pint of water, may be prescribed in tablespoonful doses. The volatile oil is given in doses of from two to four drops. This preparation, and also the spirit (SPIRITUS ROSMARINI), are, however, seldom used internally, but they enter into the composition of various stimulant liniments and tinctures. Op. cit., lib. iii., cap. lxxii. 3 App. Med., ii. 206. 2 EBN BAITHAR, ed. Sonthemier, i. 73. 5 U. S. Dispensatory, and Am. Journ. of Pharm., xxiii. 286. RUTA.-RUE. DESCRIPTION.-The leaves of Ruta graveolens, a native of southern Europe, but cultivated in England and the United States. Rue is a perennial plant two or three feet high, much branched, woody, on the main stem covered with a rough bark, but smooth and green upon the smaller branches. The leaves are fleshy, doubly pinnated, smooth, glaucous, and slightly tomentose. The flowers are of a pale greenish yellow, in terminal corymbose panicles, and are succeeded by four-lobed gibbous capsules containing numerous blackish angular seeds. The plant exhales a strong aromatic but disagreeable odor, and has a bitter, hot, and acrid taste. Its active properties depend mainly upon a volatile oil of a greenish-yellow color, of a very offensive odor and acrid and bitter taste, which abounds in small glandular bodies covering the whole surface of the plant. By drying, a great part of its activity is lost. HISTORY.-Hardly any medicine was more frequently employed or with greater confidence in its virtues than this now neglected plant. We think the reader will find in the summary which follows of medical opinions concerning its value, that it is at the present day too much disused.' It was among the medicines frequently recommended by Hippocrates. He says that it is rather diuretic than laxative, and, indeed, is somewhat astringent, and is good to take as a preservative against poisonous substances. But it was chiefly used by him in uterine affections; when taken with wine to promote the lochial discharge; with astringents to moderate plethoric menorrhagia; with aromatic stimulants in amenorrhoea, &c.3 Dioscorides dwells at length upon its virtues; says that it is caustic, calefaciant, ulcerative, diuretic, emmenagogue, and astringent to the bowels. It restricts the secretion of semen, and with anise relieves colic; it allays pains in the chest, dyspnoea, cough, gout, and sciatica, and cures intermittent fever. Clysters of oil in which it has been boiled, are useful in flatulent colic. It is also anthelmintic, and eaten raw or applied in an ointment, it improves the sight; the bruised plant laid on the forehead arrests epistaxis; with The Greek name of rue was hyarov from a verb signifying to constringe or coagulate," quod siccitate et caliditate sua coagulet et condenset semen." It was also called púðin “quod libidinosos nimiumque veneri addictos frenet." (Bodous, Theophrast. Comm., p. 797.) 2 Du Régime, Littré's ed., vi. 559. VOL. I.—39 Ibid., viii., 105, 157, 245, 295, 449. pepper, wine, and nitre, or with alum and honey, it cures various cutaneous eruptions and warts; and eaten after garlic or onions it prevents their tainting the breath. This author describes the wild. and the cultivated varieties of rue, and dwells upon the acrid character of the former, saying that it has proved fatal when eaten in too large a quantity, and that those who gather it when in bloom are apt to have their hands inflamed, and pustulated by its contact, to prevent which the hands and face should be anointed before the plant is touched. Wild rue, he adds, is useful in epilepsy and sciatica, excites the menstrual flow, and destroys the foetus in utero.' Pliny, besides furnishing in detail the accounts given by his predecessors, and insisting upon the poisonous qualities of the wild plant, states that the juice of hemlock (cicuta) protects the hands of those who gather rue from inflammation, and that the juice of the latter, taken with wine internally, is an antidote to aconite, mistletoe, mushrooms, the bites of serpents and insects, &c. He also remarks that if, as Hippocrates supposed, rue is diuretic, it is singular that it should be used by some to moderate incontinence of urine. Galen states, that when mixed with food it extinguishes the generative power by drying up the secretion of semen, and also that when strewed in the beds of those who are disposed to erotic dreams and priapism, it lessens the venereal excitement. Avicenna asserts that the seeds of rue increase the appetite, strengthen the digestion, and are useful in enlarge ment of the spleen. Rhazes says that it prevents flatulence from vegetable food, and relieves colic, but it is not good for persons subject to headache. Elgâfaki attributes this last effect, and dimness of vision, to excessive use of the plant, and alleges that in moderation it improves the eyesight. Another Arabian author states that the juice of rue rubbed upon the bald scalp will make the hair grow.3 The school of Salernum thus concisely enumerates the qualities of the plant "Nobilis est ruta, quia lumina reddit acuta; 2 Hist. Mat. xx. li. Schola Salernitana, xxxvii. 427. 4 EBN BAITHAR, ed. cit., ii. 6. Mat. Med., iii. xlv. De Viribus Herbarum. Murray in referring to the many virtues attributed to this plant by the ancients, suggests that the accounts of them require confirmation, yet he admits the strangest of them all, its power of curing epilepsy, to be well vouched for, and he claims for it a high value as an antihysteric medicine, particularly when there is at the same time suppression of the menses. Plenck attributes to a vinous infusion of rue applied as an injection, the cure of a caries of the nostrils and alveolar processes of the upper jaw; and Rosenstein, who saw the vapor of the plant cure a dimness of vision caused by excessive study, confirms the ancient statement given above.1 ACTION. It is remarkable that in several experiments performed by Orfila upon dogs, and in which the juice of the plant or its watery extract was introduced into the stomach, the animals perished without any decided symptoms, and the organs after death presented no local lesions capable of explaining the result. When the essential oil was injected into the jugular vein of a dog, symptoms of intoxication appeared, but they were only of a few hours' duration. Upon man rue acts locally as an irritant. This fact was well known to the ancients, as the citation from Dioscorides already given proves. The following is a case reported by Buchner. In June, 1823, after several very hot days, an apothecary named Roth gathered a quantity of garden rue, in full bloom, and stripped the leaves of it from the stalks. On the following morning he observed a considerable redness and heat of both hands, and the next day they had the appearance of having been exposed to the steam of hot water. They were then anointed with oil, but against the evening they were covered with vesicles, especially at the ends of the fingers which had been most in contact with the plant. On the fourth day the hands were still swollen, and between the blisters the skin was of a purplish hue. The fifth and sixth days the swelling extended up the back part of the arms as far as the elbows. Fomentations of chamomile and elder-flowers were applied, and the blisters cut. In the course of four weeks the entire cuticle exfoliated by degrees, even where there had been no blisters. His children, who had played with the rue, suffered from swelling of the face and hands.3 The effects of large doses of rue, taken internally, are described by M. Hélie in an article published in 1838, and this contains, so far as we know, the only account of the subject, except the case of a man convalescent from dysentery, who died with symptoms of intestinal inflammation after drinking some brandy mixed with the expressed Apparat. Medicam, iii. 112. 3 WIBMER, Wirkung, &c., iv. 427. 2 Toxicologie, 5ème éd., ii. 579. |