401 FLORA HISTORICA. 



for many generations, is now again become an 

 important article in the Materia Medica. It was 

 for some time employed in the form of a con- 

 cealed medicine under the name of Eau Me- 

 dicinale, which attracted great attention by its 

 success in relieving the gout and rheumatic affec- 

 tions of the joints, but which has also frequently 

 taken an injurious effect upon the constitutions of 

 some persons ; therefore it appears to be a medi- 

 cine that should be only applied by the most cau- 

 tious practitioners, for the Colchicum is unques- 

 tionably a poisonous root, and its deleterious 

 effects are to be dreaded until the precise dose is 

 more accurately ascertained than it seems gene- 

 rally to be at this time. Mr. Waller observes, 

 in his account of this plant, that one great cause 

 of this difficulty is the extreme affectation of sim- 

 plicity in the modern practice of pharmacy, and 

 the aversion of practitioners to what they con- 

 sider comphcated prescriptions. It is, however, 

 a fact, that vegetable juices brought in contact 

 with each other do undergo a chemical change ; 

 and a compound is produced very different to 

 what might be expected from a mere mixture of 

 the two. This fact has been long known to the 

 wine and cider makers, who are well aware that 

 there is a very considerable difference between 

 the mixture of two different wines or ciders, and 



