RUTA GRAVEOLENS. 145 



more efficacious for promoting perspiration, for the cure of 

 hysteric passion, and of epilepsies, and for expelling poison. 

 Externally it has been used as an application to gangrenous 

 ulcers. It has been employed in infantile convulsions, etc. 

 It is a popular emmenagogue in hysterical cases. 



Description. — Rue is a hardy evergreen under-shrub, 

 flowering in June and September. The lower part of the stem 

 is woody. The leaves are dotted, glaucous, and bluish-green. 

 Flowers in umbellate racemes, of a pale yellowish colour- 

 Petals four or five, fringed at the extremity, and attached by 

 narrow claws. The first flower has usually ten stamina, the 

 others eight. It is remarkable that the anthers move in turns 

 to the pistillum and, after having shed their pollen, retire. The 

 germen is oval, punctured with crucial furrows, and surmounted 

 by a short, awl-shaped style and simple stigma. The capsule is 

 gibbous, five-lobed, bursting elastically at the summit of each 

 lobe, and containing numerous rough, angular, blackish seeds. 



Geographical Distribution.' — South of Europe. Natu- 

 ralized in the gardens of this country. 



Parts used in Medicine, and Mode of Preparation. 

 The Fresh Plant, before its flowers are developed. The juice 

 is extracted, and treated like that of all fresh plants. 



Physiological Effects. — On Animals. Orfila found that 

 in three instances from six to eight ounces of the juice, or dis- 

 tilled water of Rue, would kill a small dog. In another in- 

 stance, vomiting and vertigo (like a drunken man) came on, 

 and the posterior extremities became very weak. 



On Man. — Rue, if much handled, causes redness, swelling, 

 and vesication of the skin. Buchner (Toxikologie, p. 265) gives 

 the following case :—" After some very hot days in June, 1823, 

 Roth, an apothecary of Aschaftenburg, cut down a con 

 siderable quantity of Rue whilst in full bloom, and separated 

 the leaves from the stalk. The next morning both his hands 

 were very red and hot, and on the third day appeared as if they 

 had been exposed to hot aqueous vapour ; they were besmeared 



