JANUAHY. 53 



for the purpose.* But I think I can give the etymo- 

 logy without going so far. Now there is an obsolete 

 old English word called mistion, which is employed 

 even in the writings of BOYLE; and this is defined in 

 Dr. JOHNSON'S original folio edition of his Dictionary, 

 as " the state of being mingled." Now this is truly the 

 condition of our plant, which is intermingled with the 

 foliage of various trees, and mixes up their juices with 

 its own; and is now indeed in rural places still simply 

 called mistle. If to this we add the old English tod or 

 toe, signifying bush, we have at once the derivation 

 meaning the mingled or mixed up bush, confounded 

 amidst and growing among leaves dissimilar to its own. 

 Anciently, on traditional faith, the mistletoe was 

 considered to be a remedy for ALL diseases. The older 

 medical writers, however, regarded it as ministering 

 chiefly to fertility and parturition; thus, in fact, con- 

 tinuing in part the old superstition; and it is also said 

 to have been worn as an amulet against poisons. HAY 

 mentions it as a specific in epilepsy,f and as useful in 

 apoplexy and giddiness; and Sir JOHN COLEATCH 

 published a " Dissertation concerning the Mistletoe, 

 a most wonderful specifick remedy for the cure of 

 convulsive distempers." This brochure of Sir JOHN'S 

 seems to have been almost the last serious effort of 

 consequence made in behalf of the medical virtues of 

 our mystic plant, at least in this country; and as it is 

 admitted by all parties that the mistletoe employed 

 must be the viscus quernus, while it seems reasonable 

 to suppose that if the plant had any powers, the place 



* See WITHERIXG'S Bot* An-, in loc., and LOUDON'S elaborate Arbore- 

 tum Britannicum. 



t Raii Sun. 464. 



