402. TANACETUM vulgare. TANSY. The Leaves.—These have a bitterish warm aromatic taste; and a very pleasant smell, approaching to that of mint or a mixture of mint and maudlin. Water elevates their flavour in distillation; and rectified spirit extracts it by infusion. They have been recommended in hysteric cases.
403. TEUCRIUM Chamaepitys. GROUND PINE. The Leaves.—These are recommended as aperient and vulnerary, as also in gouty and rheumatic pains.
404. THYMUS vulgaris. THYME. The Leaves and Flowers.—A tea made of the fresh tops of thyme is good in asthmas and diseases of the lungs. It is recommended against nervous complaints; but for this purpose the wild thyme is preferable. There is an oil made from thyme that cures the tooth-ache, a drop or two of it being put upon lint and applied to the tooth; this is commonly called oil of origanum.
405. TRIGONELLA Foenum-graecum. FOENUGREEK. The Seeds.—They are of a yellow colour, a rhomboidal figure; have a disagreeable strong smell, and a mucilaginous taste. Their principal use is in cataplasms, fomentations, and the like, and in emollient glysters.
406. VERBASCUM Thapsus. MULLEIN. The Leaves and Flowers.—Their taste discovers a glutinous quality; and hence they stand recommended as an emollient, and is in some places held in great esteem in consumptions. The flowers of mullein have an agreeable, honeylike sweetness: an extract prepared from them by rectified spirit of wine tastes extremely pleasant.
407. VERBENA officinalis. COMMON WILD VERVAIN. The Leaves and Root.— This is one of the medicines which we owe to the superstition of former ages; the virtue it has been celebrated for is as an amulet, on which a pamphlet was some years ago published. It was recommended to wear the root by a ribband tied round the neck for the cure of the scrophula, and for which purpose, even now, much of the root is sold in London. As the age of superstition is passing by, it will be needless to say more on the subject at present.
408. VERONICA officinalis. MALE SPEEDWELL. The Leaves.—Hoffman and Joh. Francus have written express treatises on this plant, recommending infusions of it, drunk in the form of tea, as very salubrious in many disorders, particularly those of the breast.
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Observations on the Drying and Preserving of Herbs, &c. for Medicinal
Purposes.
The student who has paid attention to the subject described in the foregoing sections, will be struck with the admirable contrivance of Divine Wisdom; that has caused such astringent substances as are contained in the oak and Peruvian bark, to be produced from the same soil, and in a similar way to those mucilaginous and laxative ones which we find in the juice of the marsh-mallow, and the olive oil. It is not intended in this small elementary work to enter into any investigation of the primitive parts of the vegetable creation, or how such different particles are secreted. It may therefore suffice, that, although the science of vegetable physiology admits of many very beautiful and instructing illustrations, yet they only go so far as to prove to us, that the first and grand principle of vegetable life and existence, as well as of the formation of all organic substances, consists in a system of attraction and combination of the different particles of nature, as they exist and are imbibed from the soil and the surrounding atmosphere. Thus, during their existence, we observe a continual series of aggregation of substance; but no sooner does the principle of life become extinct, than the agents of decomposition are at work, dividing and selecting each different substance, and carrying it back from whence it came:—"From dust thou comest, and to dust thou shalt return." This, therefore, seems to be the sum total of existence; the explanation of which, with all its interesting ramifications, is more fully explained by the learned professors in what is called the science of chemistry.