ASARUM EUROPEUM. 55 
“ The same, taken in like manner, is profitable against venom, 
and the biting and stinging of serpents. 
“The same, in wine, is good for them that have the dropsy 
and sciatica. 
“The leaves of the Asarabacca, stamped with wine and 
strained, and the juice thereof drunken, causeth vomiting, and 
purgeth, by vomiting, tough phlegm and choler. 
“The same leaves, stamped, are good to be applied and laid 
to the ache and dolors of the head, to the inflammation of the 
eyes, and to women’s breasts that are too full of milk when they 
list to dry the same, and it is good to be laid to the disease 
called the wildfire, especially at the beginning.” 
It was recommended by Coste and Willemet as a substitute 
for ipecacuanha, and indeed was used as an emetic previous to 
the introduction of that root into Europe. A few grains snuffed 
up the nose for several evenings will produce a considerable 
watery discharge, which sometimes continues for several days, 
by which headache, toothache, chronic ophthalmia, and some 
soporific and paralytic complaints have been relieved. It is 
supposed to be the chief ingredient in the cephalic snuffs. It 
was also used in arthritis, ascites, tertian and quartan agues, 
vertigo, hydrocephalus, amaurosis, deafness, bleeding from the 
nose, paralysis of the organs of deglutition, icterus, diseases of 
the kidneys, chronic bronchitis, and asthma. It was an ingredient. 
in some of the nostrums used to procure abortions, and is 
used as a specific in dysentery by the Icelanders. It has been 
employed to cure malignant ulcers and other diseases in cattle. 
A comparison with the proyings of this plant, will show how 
manifold are the homeopathic relations between the disorders 
produced by the Asarum and those which are cured by it. The 
following extract from Paulli (Quadripartum Botanicum, Argen- 
torati, 1667, p. 23) is significant. ‘In super noto apud His- 
torie plantarum universalis autores, tom. iii, pp. 550-6, hee 
verba reperii subdit Zragus Asari, foliis carpo admotis uti 
mulierculas Argentoratenses ad febris ardorem depellendum, 
