286 FLORA HOMCOPATHICA. 
the distinctive characters of the two species.* The term 
Melampodon, used by some of the old Dispensatories for this 
drug, has arisen from its having been mistaken for the Veratrum 
album, the true EarcGogos of the ancients, the drug by which 
Melampus cured the daughters of Proetus, king of the Ar- 
givans. In Hahnemann’s most erudite essay on the Helleborism 
of the Ancients, he proves that Veratrum album was not deno- 
minated AAcSogos Aeuxos until after the discovery of the Helle- 
borus niger, but that it was termed by them Hellebore, uaTEzoyXny, 
thereby denoting that it was their sole and well-known evacuant; 
and if this be the case, the old proverb “ Naviget Anticyram,” 
send a madman a voyage to Anticyra, will apply equally to the 
Veratrum album as to the Helleborus niger. 
In early times it was used in mania and dropsy, from its 
peculiar drastic properties, the ancient physicians considering 
that it got rid of the black bile, which was supposed to cause 
these diseases. Paracelsus extols its virtues in gout, skin dis- 
eases, epilepsy, and jaundice. It was found especially serviceable 
in torpid, phlegmatic individuals, especially when the pelvic 
circulation was languid. Dr. Mead and others employed it 
with great success as an emmenagogue, and it has been found 
useful by many physicians in hypochondriasis and hysteria; 
headaches, with somnolency, which are increased by move- 
ments, etc. etc. 
Dezscription.—The Helleborus niger is a perennial plant, 
flowering from December to March; hence its name, Christmas 
Rose. The Jeaves are pedate, large, composed of five, six, 
or more leaflets, of a deep green colour, smooth, and dotted 
with red. The Jeaflets are ovate-lanceolate, smooth, shining, 
and coriaceous, with the distal half of each slightly serrated. 
The flower-stalk is a scape, six or eight inches in length, erect, 
+ This can be only interesting as regards the history of the plant, practically it 
does not signify. The Helleborus niger is the plant which Hahnemann and others 
proved, and it is that species we must describe. 
