200 FLORA HOMOPATHICA. 
Saffron, which is indigenous in the Levant, to be the Hermo- 
dactylus of the shops. Alexander Trallian, in his work “ De 
Podagra,” recommends Hermodactylus as a remedy for gout 
and other affections, either alone or mixed with scammony, 
ginger, and other ingredients. He also remarks that the habitual 
use of this medicine disposes the patients to more frequent 
attacks of this disease, a peculiar effect likewise of Colchicum, 
which is corroborated by Sir C. Scudamore (Treat. on Gout and 
Rheumatism, 3rd edit., p. 197). 
It appears to have been in great renown in the thirteenth 
century, and from its supposed virtues in the cure of gout and 
rheumatism of the joints, it obtained the name of Anima articu- 
lorum, “the soul of joints.” It was the principal ingredient in 
all gout specifics; and the famous Eau médicinale is supposed 
to owe its virtues to a preparation from this plant.* 
According to Prosper Alpinus, the Egyptian women ate 
great quantities of the wasted roots of the Colchicum to fatten 
themselves, calling them Hermodactyles; but M. Pomet 
(Histoire des Drogues) considers these as the fruit of a large 
tree; he, however, owns their services in palsies, gout, etc. 
This is one of those plants whose violent and singular effects 
in the bodies of animals engaged the attention of Dr. Storck, 
in hopes that, by giving it in very small doses, or by due pre- 
paration, it might be converted into a medicine, not only safe, 
but capable of relieving disorders in which the common reme- 
dies prove ineffectual. “Sunt multi qui in abstractissimis pro- 
cessibus chemicis querunt ex metallis medicamenta, et negligunt 
_€a que tellus largitur offert, que nature provida sponte paravit 
et qu corpori nostro sunt longe magis analoga” (Stérek, Libell. 
de Colch. Autum.) 
 * Others inioss that the chief ingredient in Husson’s specific (Eau médicinale) 
is the Rhododendron crysanthum; the effects of the French medicine are pre- 
cisely those which are experienced from an infusion of this plant, which the Sibe- 
rians and Russians regard as an infallible specific in the cure of chronic rheuma- 
tism and gout (vide Paris, Pharmacologia, 9th edit., p. 122.) 
