( %35 9 
_ {pirit extra& nearly the whole of their pungent matter: the leaves, 
_ notwithftanding the yellow juice which iffues fo plentifully from a 
flight wound, and in which their aGtivity feems to refide, give to rectified 
fpirit a green tin€ture: the roots, which yield a copious faffron red 
juice, tinge the fame menftruum of a brownith yellow.” 3 
“ The pungency of this plant is not of the volatile kind, little or 
nothing of it rifing in diftillation with water any more than with 
{pirit: it is neverthelefs greatly abated by drying the plant itfelf, or 
_by infpiffating with a gentle heat the fpirituous or watery infufions.’”* 
This acrid plant has been much recommended in the general. 
character of an aperient and attenuant. In jaundice it was long 
confidered as the moft effectual remedy that could be employed, as 
appears from the writings of Diofcorides, Galen, Foreftus, and other 
authors of moré recent date; hence it was a principal ingredient in 
the decofum ad ifericos in the Edinburgh Pharmacopeeia. Nor has 
its ufe been confined to hepatic obftructions ; in thofe of the other 
vifcera, as well as in thé mefenteric and lymphatic glands, it is faid to. 
have been equally efficacious.” 
_ ° It has alfo been fuccefsfully employed as an expe€torant; and 
‘feveral writers found*it of great efficacy in curing intermittents.© It 
has been adminiftered in various forms.and dofes. Half a dram, or 
_ adram-of the dry root in powder, or an infufion in wine or water. 
of a dram, or a dram and an Half, of the frefh root, or three or four 
drops of its yellow juice in any convenient vehicle, are direCted for 
a dofe. We have little doubt but that the virtues of Celandine have 
been greatly exaggerated, and its general employment in jaundice 
feems to have originated in the abfurd do@trine of fignatures: in certain 
cafes however we fhould expect to find it an ufeful remedy, for it 
evidently poffefles active powers; and thus it is externally ufed to 
deftroy warts, clean foul ulcers, and remove opacities of the cornea. 
® Lewis. bl. te 
* Lange. De Med. Brunf. p. 124. ¢ See Murray. |. ¢. 
This plant, and the two fpecies of papaver, figured in the firft 
part of Medical Botany, are all the medicinal plants belonging to 
this natural order.. 
ie ees BICORNES. 
Y 
