1332
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
Sp. Char. — Calyx spreading. Flower-stalks round and even- uin three deep-lobed and cut segments; those of the uppermost linearentire. Stem erect, covered with close hairs (Smith, Eng. FI.)
Perennial. Flowers yellow. Petals with a scale at the base. rSHab. —Indigenous ; very common in meadows and pastures. I’ 1in June and July.
Composition. —Not analyzed. Its acrid principle is either very v0 - tsor readily undergoes decomposition, as, by drying, the plant 1°acridity. . f t he
Physiological Effects. —A powerful acrid. Inflammation y ^palm of the hand has been produced by pulling it up and carryinglittle distance (Curtis, FI. Lond. vol. i.) Withering ( Arrang■ of ^Plants, iii. 681) says it easily blisters the skin. Orfila (Tox. ^ - o0 ofshewn, by experiments on animals, its power of causing inflainu> a 1the tissues to which it is applied. . g f a r
Uses. —It has been applied as a rubefacient and epispastic, hutinferior to cantharides and mustard, on account of the uncertaintyoperation.
Ranun'cuius Flam'mula, Linn. D.— Lesser Spear-wort Crowf 00 ^
Sex. Syst. Polyandria, Poly^ynia.
(Herba recens, D.)
Botany. Gen. Char. —See It. Acris.
Sp. Char. — Leaves ovate-lanceolate, bluntish stalked. Stem reing. Root fibrous. Seeds smooth (Smith). 0 jd
Perennial. Leaves nearly entire, subserrate. Flowers bright &colour.
Hab. —Indigenous; sides of lakes and ditches abundant.
Physiological Effects and Uses. —Similar to those of Ra nunacris.
Helleb'orus ni'ger, Linn. E. D.— Black Hellebore, or Christmas F 0$e
(Root, E.— Radix, D.)
History. —According to Sprengel (Hist. Rei Herb. i. 226) this lSplant called by the Abbess Hildegard, Christiana. \ of
It must not be confounded with the tWipopog filXac ( black helleb°Dioscorides (lib. iv. cap. 151), which, according to Dr. Sibthorp^^,Grtecee), was the plant which he has described and figured under the 1 ’^of Helleborus officinalis. Hippocrates employed hellebore in m e( ‘jMelampus employed it with great success in the treatment of m a ^1400 years before Christ. His use of it is the earliest instance on J jtof the use of a purgative, (Le Clerc, Hist, de la Med. p. 27,has been called after him melampodium, a term which has alsoapplied to Helleborus niger. r ^
I cannot understand what circumstance can have induced the L ^College to adopt the Helleborus officinalis, Sibth . as the source °^ e pthellebore root of the shops. That it is an error cannot be for a mdoubted. jjglii
Botany. Gen. Char. — Calyx persistent, of five sepals; sepals roU ”obtuse, large, usually green. Petals 8 to 10, very short, tubular, n‘