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t* 
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7 
feem only to produce a mere variation in the llrength of the medicine 
we conceive fuch pharmaceutical inquiries to be of^very little import 
' " , which 
ance 
requiring only a proportionate adjufcment of the dof« 
under the direaion of a fkilful praditioner, will always be regulated 
n 
by 
fieds only, beginning 
wi 
a 
few trains' of the extract or 
powder, and increafmg it daily [ till a flight vertiga or other fymptoms 
manifeft the fufficiency of the dofe 
purfued, the medici 
and unlefs this method 
be faid to h 
" An extrad from the feeds is faid to prod 
that from the leaves. 
had 
cient trial. 
iddinefs foo 
Hence, while both the London and Edinburgli 
Colleges have given a i 
the fucc 
fp 
s cicut?£, into the 
pharmacopoeia of the latter an extradum feminum cicutae is 
alfo 
introduced 
■^^ 
This fhould 
fli 
of this Dr. 
dicine, as it may differ very materially from the former preparation ufed ; 
CuUen gives a remarkable inftance, ftrongly evincing the neceiSty of fuch a pre- 
caution, 1. c. ^ Duncan's Edin, New Dif. " 
The powder of the dried leaves of Flemlock feems to a£i: with more certainty, and 
Is more to be depended upon than the extrat^ ; great caution however is required ia 
drying and preferving thefe leaves.' Dr. Withering recommends the following method, 
which appears to us extremely proper ; '^ Let the leaves be gathered about the end of 
J 
/ 
Pick oft the little leaves, and throw away the leaf 
ilalks. Dry thefe fele6led little leaves in a hot fun, or in a tin dripping pan or pewter 
difh before the fire.\ Preferve them in bags made of flrong brown paper, or powder 
them and keep the powder in glafs vials, in a drawer or fomething that will exclude the 
light, for the light foon diflipates the beautiful green colour, and with its colour the 
medicine lofes its efficacy. From 15 to 25 grains of this powder may be taken twice 
or thrice a day. I have found it particularly ufeful in chronic rheumatifms. and alfo in 
many of thofe difeafes v/hich are ufually fu|)pofed to arife from acrimony. .The nature 
of this book does not allow minute details of the virtues of plants, but I can afTjre the 
medical praditioner, that this is well worth his attention.'' Bot. Arrang. 2d Ed. p* 280. 
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No. 5. 
S 
DAPHNE MEZEREUM. 
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