- \ 
- < 
<-^ 
i 
r--P" 
r 
f 
r 
The blacknefs manifefted by adding a folution of green vitriol to 
the juice, or to a flrong infufion of the leaves of Buckbean, is a 
fufficient teft of its aftringency ; while a dram of the powdered leaves 
feldom fails to open the body, or produce vomiting; fo that in com- 
mon with the tonic properties of a bitter, it feems farther to poflefs 
a confiderable fliare of medicinal adivity : we can therefore more 
eafily credit the reports of its fuccefs in a great number of chronic 
difeafes mentioned by various authors % as fcurvy, doropfy, jaundice 
afthma, periodical headachs, intermittents, hypochondriafis, cachexia', 
obflrudio menfmm, rheumatifm, fcrophula, worms, gout. Dr. Boer- 
haave was relieved in the laft mentioned complaint by drinking the 
juice mixed with whey**; and Dr. Alfton tells us, that " this plant 
had remarkable effeds in the gout, in keeping oif " the paroxyfms ;'* 
but adds, '* though not to the patient's advantage *. 
• In confirmation of the good effects of Water Trefoil in dropfies 
we are told that fheep, when forced to eat it, are ^ cured of the 
rot ; (oves tabidse) yet as we have but few and imperfed proofs of its 
diuretic powers, this fad will be confidered of little weight. 
Bergius confines the ufes of this plant to fcorbutus, leucophleg- 
matia, arthritis, rheumatifmus, cacoethes^, and this fpecification is 
flill farther contraded by later writers on the Materia Medica. In 
Lewis's Mat. Med. {by Mr, Aikin) it is faid, that the leaves of 
buckbean " have of late years come into common ufe as an al- 
I 
terative and 
aperient, m impurities of the humours, and feme 
"^ hydropic and rheumatic cafes ;" and as an adive and eccoprotic 
bitter, we fhould fuppofe them not ill adapted to fupply the want 
of bile in the prim^ vice, and thus infer their ufe in protraded 
\ 
Trifolii Fibrini Hiftoria, fekais obfervationlbus et perfplculs exemplis, illuilrata 
J 
Rede 
D. Tancredus 
German 
bus feptentrionalibus nunc dierum unice charam et in magno pretio effe, et affiduo ufa 
trequentan in omnibus fere morbis, ut certiffimam panaceam, ad quam etiara in de- 
ploratis affeaibus, velut ad facram anchoram, confugiunt (Raii Hiftor. Plant, p. 1099.) 
See alfo Wilhus Aa. Hafn. vol. 3. Sim. Pauli, Quadrip. Bot. p. 173. et feq. Tilling 
Mifc. N. cunos Dec. 2. Gulbrand DifT. de Sanguifluxu Uterino: Du Clos Anc. 
Mem. p. 329. Schulz Mat. Med. p. 445. ^ ■ . 
v.hnVt « wiP""- ■R-^-''- \' ^^^- "^- O^^- ^23 (this anfwers Dr. Alfton's query, 
who afc, Where is this related ?» Alfton. Mat.Med. vol. 2. o. 2ao. 
M, c. f Dr. T. Robinfon. s 
Mat. Med 
p. 91. 
jaundice 
1* 
- ^ 
