30 LYCOPUS. No. 61. 



without inducing any debility, nor acting on the heart or 

 brain in any injurious manner. 



It may be used in many diseases, and whenever it is 

 required to quell inordinate actions of the blood, or even 

 other fluids. I have been informed that it is commonly 

 used in New Jersey for diarrhoea and dysentery, which 

 It helps to cure. It is a good adjunct to tonics in fevers. 



. ^ inflammatory 



ot tJie drunkards, m diseases of the heart, &c. I deem 

 it the best sedative in almost all cases; it does not ap- 

 pear to act on the nervous system, but chiefly, over the 

 blood vessels. The usual way to take it has been in the 



warm 



diet drink, and without much nicety about the quantity. 

 In hemoptysis, I prefer a lemonade made with a weak 

 tea of it, or a syrup made with it A very strong infu- 

 sion may also be used, by putting one or two spoonsful 

 of it in tonic or. refrigerant drinks. 



The Lycopus vulgaris has lately been extolled in Eu- 

 rope m fevers, and is said to have cured intermittents 

 alone. As its qualities are very near alike those of Z. 

 virgimcus, being only a little more tonic and astringent, 

 and a little less narcotic and sedative: they may, per- 

 haps, be tried as mutual equivalents in fevers and in- 

 flammatory disorders. All the species appear to have 

 somewhat similar qualities and properties; but it is best 

 to trust to the L. virginims alone as a sedative. The 

 dried plants preserve their properties for many years. I 

 have prepared a compound syrup of it with Eupaionum 

 and other tonics, which I have foun^d very useful in ca- 

 tarrhs, pneumonia, hemoptysis, &c. It induces diapho- 

 resis without debility, and acts as a tonic sedative, an 

 article till now almost unknown in materia medica- 

 LuUer says that the L. virginicits is used in New Eng- 

 land to dye wool, linen, and silk of a black colour. I 

 cannot tell why this plant has received the name of 

 gugle, which properly belongs to the ^juga reptans of 



