The tops used to enter three of our distilled waters, and give name to a conserve. They are an ingredient also in the common fomentation and green oil.
180. ARTEMISIA Santonica. ROMAN WORMWOOD. Seeds. E. D.—It is a native of the warmer countries, and at present difficultly procurable in this, though as hardy and as easily raised as any of the other sorts. Sea wormwood has long supplied its place in the markets, and been in general mistaken for it.
Roman wormwood is less ungrateful than either of the others: its smell is tolerably pleasant: the taste, though manifestly bitter, scarcely disagreeable. It appears to be the most eligible of the three as a stomachic; and is likewise recommended by some in dropsies.
181. ARUM maculatum. BITING ARUM. Fresh Root. L. E.—This root is a powerful stimulant and attenuant. It is reckoned a medicine of great efficacy in some cachectic and chlorotic cases; in weakness of the stomach occasioned by a load of viscid phlegm, and in such disorders in general as proceed from a cold sluggish indisposition of the solids and lentor of the fluids. I have experienced great benefit from it in rheumatic pains, particularly those of the fixed kind, and which were seated deep. In these cases I have given from ten grains to a scruple of the fresh root twice or thrice a day, made into a bolus or emulsion with unctuous and mucilaginous substances, which cover its pungency, and prevent its making any painful impression on the tongue. It generally excited a slight tingling sensation through the whole habit, and, when the patient was kept warm in bed, produced a copious sweat.
The only officinal preparation, in which this root was an ingredient, was a compound powder; in which form its virtues are very precarious. Some recommend a tincture of it drawn with wine; but neither wine, water, nor spirit, extract its virtues.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
182. ASARUM Europaeum, ASARABACCA. The Leaves. L. E. D.—Both the roots and leaves have a nauseous, bitter, acrimonious, hot taste; their smell is strong, and not very disagreeable. Given in substance from half a dram to a dram, they evacuate powerfully both upwards and downwards. It is said that tinctures made in spirituous menstrua possess both the emetic and cathartic virtues of the plant: that the extract obtained by inspissating these tinctures acts only by vomit, and with great mildness: that an infusion in water proves cathartic, rarely emetic: that aqueous decoctions made by long boiling, and the watery extract, have no purgative or emetic quality, but prove notable diaphoretics, diuretics, and emmenagogues.
Its principal use at present is as a sternutatory. The root of asarum is perhaps the strongest of all the vegetable errhines, white hellebore itself not excepted. Snuffed up the nose, in the quantity of a grain or two, it occasions a large evacuation of mucus, and raises a plentiful spitting. The leaves are considerably milder, and may be used to the quantity of three, four, or five grains. Geoffroy relates, that after snuffing up a dose of this errhine at night, he has frequently observed the discharge from the nose to continue for three days together; and that he has known a paralysis of the mouth and tongue cured by one dose. He recommends this medicine in stubborn disorders of the head, proceeding from viscid tenacious matter, in palsies, and in soporific distempers. The leaves are an ingredient in the pulvis sternutatoris of the shops.
183. ASPIDIUM Filix-Mas. Polypodium, Linn. MALE FERN. The Roots. L. E. D.—They are said to be aperient and anthelmintic. Simon Pauli tells us, that they have been the grand secret of some empirics against the broad kind of worms called taenia; and that the dose is one, two, or three drams of the powder. Two other kinds of Ferns used to be recommended; but this, being the strongest, has therefore been made choice of in preference, though the College of Edinburgh still retain them in their Catalogue of Simples.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
184. ASTRAGALUS Tragacanthus. GOATS-THORN. The Gum. L. E. D.—This gum is of a strong body, and does not perfectly dissolve in water. A dram will give to a pint of water the consistence of a syrup, which a whole ounce of gum Arabic is scarce sufficient to do. Hence its use for forming troches, and the like purposes, in preference to the other gums. It is used in an officinal powder, and is an ingredient in the compound powders of ceruss and amber.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
185. ATROPA Belladonna. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. The Leaves, L. E. D.— Belladonna was first employed as an external application, in the form of fomentation, to scirrhus and cancer. It was afterwards administered internally in the same affections; and numerous cases, in which it had proved successful, were given on the authority of the German practitioners. It has been recommended, too, as a remedy in extensive ulceration, in paralysis, chronic rheumatism, epilepsy, mania, and hydrophobia, but with so little discrimination, that little reliance can be placed on the testimonies in its favour; and, in modern practice, it is little employed. It appears to have a peculiar action on the eye: hence it has been used in amaurosis; and from its power of causing dilatation of the pupil, when topically applied under the form of infusion, it has been used before performing the operation for cataract. A practice which is hazardous, as the pupil, though much dilated by the application, instantly contracts when the instrument is introduced. When given internally, its dose is from one to three grains of the dried leaves, or one grain of the inspissated juice.—Murray's Mat. Med. p. 174.