IMPROVEMENT OF PHYSIC. 207 



dilT. med. dni. Arch. Bseck. de medicam.' 

 domed. 



4- 

 An hafty and imprudent judgment about poi- 

 fons^ and their difference from medicines which in 

 reality differ only in degrees of firength. Hence 

 our anceltors fcarcely ever dared to prefcribe 

 the ufe of plants, which they imagined to be 

 poifonous. 



The laurel is neither ufed in confumptions, 

 nor venereal complaints, though an excel- 

 lent remedy •, becaufe it is fufpedled to be 

 poifonous. The pafque flower^ whofe root 

 is very efficacious in hyfleric complaints, 

 is gone out of vogue -, becaufe Helvigius 

 knew a perfon who dyed upon ufmg a fy- 

 rup made of it •, as if all inebriating drinks 

 were to be difcarded, becaufe fome have 

 o lofl their fenfes, and lives by an inordi- 

 dinate ufe of them. The lignum colu- 

 brinum % that is famous in venomous 

 bites, and the quartan ague, is negledted 

 for the fame reafon. Scarce any one dares 



« In vol. 2. Amaen. academ. there is a treatife on the lig- 

 mon colubrinum, in vvhicli the author undertakes to deter- 

 mine from what plant this root is taken, and obferves that 

 druggifts, for want of a proper delcriptlon, have confound- 

 ed it with two other plants, one of which, and that gene- 

 rally in the fiiops, is of a poifonous nature. 



recom- 



