277. SOLIDAGO Virga aurea. GOLDEN ROD. Flowers and Leaves. D.—The leaves have a moderately astringent bitter taste, and hence prove serviceable in debility and laxity of the viscera, and disorders proceeding from that cause.
278. SPARTIUM scoparium. BROOM. Tops and Seeds. L. D.-These have a nauseous bitter taste: decoctions of them loosen the belly, promote urine, and stand recommended in hydropic cases. The flowers are said to prove cathartic in decoction, and emetic in substance, though in some places, as Lobel informs us, they are commonly used, and in large quantity, in salads, without producing any effect of this kind. The qualities of the seeds are little better determined: some report that they purge almost as strongly as hellebore, in the dose of a dram and a half; whilst the author above mentioned relates, that he has given a decoction of two ounces of them as a gentle emetic.
279. SPIGELLA marylandica. WORM GRASS. Root. L. E. D.-About forty years ago, the anthelmintic virtues of the root of this plant were discovered by the Indians; since which time it has been much used here. I have given it in hundreds of cases, and have been very attentive to its effects. I never found it do much service, except when it proved gently purgative. Its purgative quality naturally led me to give it in febrile diseases which seem to arise from viscidity in the primae viae; and in these cases it succeeded to admiration, even when the sick did not void worms.
To a child of two years of age who had been taking ten grains of the root twice a-day without having any other effect than making her dull and giddy, I prescribed twenty-two grains morning and evening, which purged her briskly, and brought away five large worms. [Communications from Dr. Gardner.]-Woodville's Med. Bot.
280. TANACETUM vulgare. TANSY. Herb. E. D.—Considered as a medicine, it is a moderately warm bitter, accompanied with a strong, not very disagreeable flavour. Some have had a great opinion of it in hysteric disorders, particularly those proceeding from a deficiency or suppression of the usual course of nature.
281. TEUCRIUM Marum. CAT THYME. Herb. D.—The leaves have an aromatic bitterish taste; and, when rubbed betwixt the fingers, a quick pungent smell, which soon affects the head, and occasions sneezing: distilled with water, they yield a very acrid, penetrating essential oil, resembling one obtained by the same means from scurvy-grass. These qualities sufficiently point out the uses to which this plant might be applied; at present, it is little otherwise employed than in cephalic snuffs.
282. TEUCRIUM Chamaedrys. GERMANDER. Herb. D.—The leaves, tops, and seeds, have a bitter taste, with some degree of astringency and aromatic flavour. They were recommended as sudorific, diuretic, and emmenagogue, and for strengthening the stomach and viscera in general. With some they have been in great esteem in intermittent fevers; as also in scrophulous and other chronic disorders.
283. TORMENTILLA erecta. TORMENTIL, or UPRIGHT SEPTFOIL. Root. L. E. D. —The root is the only part of this plant which is used medicinally; it has a strong styptic taste, but imparts no peculiar sapid flavour. This has been long held in great estimation as an astringent. Dr. Cullen has used it with gentian with great effect in intermittent fevers. Lewis recommends an ounce and a half of the powdered root to be boiled in three pints of water to a quart, adding towards the end of the boiling a dram of cinnamon. Of the strained liquor, sweetened with an ounce of any agreeable syrup, two ounces or more may be taken four or five times a-day.
284. TUSSILAGO Farfara. COLTSFOOT. Herb. L. E. D.—Tussilago stands recommended in coughs and other disorders of the breast and lungs: the flowers were an ingredient in the pectoral decoction of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia.
285. VALERIANA officinalis. VALERIAN. Root. L. E. D.—Valerian is a medicine of great use in nervous disorders, and is particularly serviceable in epilepsies proceeding from a debility in the nervous system. It was first brought into esteem in these cases by Fabius Columna, who by taking the powdered root, in the dose of half a spoonful, was cured of an inveterate epilepsy after many other medicines had been tried in vain. Repeated experience has since confirmed its efficacy in this disorder; and the present practice lays considerable stress upon it.