ON THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES 
oF THE NATURAL ORDER | 
BAN UN CURE ae 
AND OF THE ALCALOIDS, 
VERATRIA, SABADILLINE, DELPHINIA, AND ACONITINE. 
Or the three plants, whose medicinal properties it is intended to 
give an account of in the following pages, two, the Delphinium 
Staphisagria and the Aconitum Napellus, belong to the extensive 
family ranunculacee ; and with regard to the third, the plant 
which yields the Sabadilla seeds, little appears to be ‘known, by 
which its precise character and situation in botanical arrangements 
can be determined. It has been supposed to belong to the class 
Colchicacex, but as in some of its medicinal properties it is much 
more allied to the ranunculacez, it isintended, for the sake of con- 
venience, to speak of it as belonging to this latter class, until our 
knowledge of it becomes more definite. 
The natural family ranunculacex, asa whole, exhibits consider- 
able uniformity ; but nevertheless, some discrepancy occurs when 
its parts are more minutely examined. Many of the individuals 
are acrid and caustic in the highest degree, whilst others are aromatic, 
as the Megella Sativa, which in consequence of its taste is some- 
times used as a pepper. In some again, the properties they possess 
are owing to an active principle which can be separated by che- 
mical processes ; whilst in others, as for instance, in almost the 
whole tribe of ranunculuses, these are destroyed by drying and 
boiling, or even by simple infusion in water, whilst they are aug- 
mented by acids, honey, sugar, wine, alcohol, &c.* The acrid @le- 
matis Vitalba is used as an article of food after being boile , by 
the country people in the north of Italy, and the Ranunculus 
aquaticus is sometimes given to cattle after being deprived of its 
acrimony by drying. The general properties of the family may be 
* Decandolle Essai sur les Propriétés Médicales des Plantes. 
