RANUNCULUS. 113 



Med. Pura : " The plant which was used in our provings was 

 gathered in June, and, together with the blossoms, pounded in 

 the mortar, after having been cut up in small pieces. The 

 juice was squeezed through linen, and filled in a glass con- 

 taining about a tablespoonful of alcohol, in order to prevent the 

 decomposition of the juice, while the juice of the other portions 

 of the plant was pressed out. The bulb was cut into twelve or 

 sixteen pieces, from which the juice was likewise expressed in 

 a similar manner, after they had been previously stamped into a 

 kind of pap. The whole of the expressed juice having been 

 put together, both that of the plant and of the bulb, it was 

 mixed with equal parts of the strongest alcohol, and was put in 

 a well-closed chest, being shaken several times a day ; the trans- 

 parent, dark brown essence was poured into a well-stoppered 

 glass, leaving the sediment behind. The twelve or sixteen 

 pieces into which the bulb had been divided, and which had 

 been moistened with an ounce of alcohol during the poundin 



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furnishing scarcely as much juice as was equal to the alcohol 

 which had been added ; the pounded fragments of the bulb were 

 put into a glass and well mixed with two volumes of alcohol, 

 and after having been left standing three days as above, the 

 bright red tincture thus obtained was mixed in equal portions 

 with the juice of the whole plant. All the varieties of Ranun- 

 culus owe the greatest portion of their virtue to a so-called acrid 

 principle, which has no chemical existence, and is only known 

 by its dynamic action upon the organism. According to Krapf 

 {Exp. de NonnulL Ranun. Ven. QuaL), this acrid principle of 

 the Ranunculus is neither acid nor alkaline, and very volatile ; 

 hence it is that the Ranunculus loses almost its entire virtue by 

 boiling, drying, etc." 



The acridity of the leaves and stems of the Ranunculus bul- 

 bosus is various during the period of fructification. The leaves 

 near the root, as well as the other leaves, are much less acrid 

 the paler and drier they are; the stem is less acrid in pro- 

 portion as it is more woody; so that during the period of 



