Cogs 5 
This plant has long been confidered as a powerful medicine; and, 
till the late revifion of the Pharmacopeeia by the London College, it — 
had a place in the catalogue of the Materia Medica; in which the two 
common varieties of this plant are indifcriminately dire¢ted for ule, 
and, on the authority of C. Bauhine, improperly diftinguifhed into 
male and female Peony. 
“ The roots and feeds of Peony have, when frefh, a faint un- 
pleafant fmell; fomewhat of the narcotic kind; and a mucilaginous 
fubacrid tafte, with a flight degree of bitternefs and aftringency. » In 
drying they lofe their fmell, and part of their tafte. Extraéts made 
from them by water are almoft infipid, as well as inodorous; but 
extracts made by rectified fpitit are manifeftly bitterifh and con- 
fiderably aftringent.” | 
“* The flowers have rather more {mell than any of the other parts 
of the plant, and a rough fweetifh tafte, which they impart, together 
with their colour, both to water and fpirit.” * 
‘The roots, flowers, and feeds of Peony have beeri efteemed in the 
character of an anodyne and corroborant, but more efpecially the 
roots; which fince the days of Galen” have been very commonly 
employed as a remedy for the epilepfy. For this purpofe it was ufual 
to cut the root into thin flices, which were to be attached to a ftring, 
and fufpended about the neck as an amulet; if this failed of fuccefs, 
the patient was to have recourfe to the internal ufe of this root, which 
Willis* directs to be given in the form of powder, and in the quantity 
of a dram two or three times a day, by which, as we are informed, 
both infants and adults were cured of this difeafe. Other authors 
recommend the exprefled juice to be given in wine, and fweetened 
with fugar, as the moft effectual way of adminiftering this plant. 
Many writers," however, efpecially in modern times, from repeated 
trials of the Peony in epileptic cafes, have found it of no ule 
whatever; though profeflor Home, who gave the radix pzoniz to 
* Lie bee 
> De fimp: lib. 6. p. 807. Ricer : | 
© Pathol. Cerebri. caps 3 ¢ Boerhaave, Haller, Tiffot, and others. 
two 
