12 : ORD. I. Conifere. JUNIPERUS SABINA. 
Savin is a powerful and active medicine, and has been long reputed 
the most efficacious in the Materia Medica, for producing a determi- 
nation to the uterus, and thereby proving emmenagogue;" it heats 
and stimulates the whole system very considerably, and is said to 
promote the fluid secretions. 
The power which this plant possesses in opening uterine obstruc- 
tions is considered to be so great, that we are told it has been fre- 
quently employed, and with too much success, for purposes the most 
infamous and unnatural. It’seems probable however that its effects 
in'this way have been somewhat over rated, as it is found very fre- 
quently to fail as an emmenagogue, though this, in some measure, 
may be ascribed to the cmelineon of the dose in which it has been 
usually prescribed by physicians; for Dr. Cullen observes, “ that 
‘« Savin is a very acrid and heating substance, and I have been often 
“upon account of these ‘qualities, prevented from employing it in 
‘“ the quantity perhaps necessary to render it emmenagogue. I must 
* own however that it shows a more powerful determination to the 
“uterus than any other plant I have employed; but I have been 
«frequently disappointed in this, and its heating qualities always 
* require a great deal of caution.” Dr. Home appears to have had 
very great success with this medicine, for in five cases of amenorrheea 
which occurred at the Royal infirmary at Edinburgh, four were 
ured by the Sabina,* which he gave in powder from a scruple to 
a dram twice a day. He says it is well suited to the debile, but 
impropet in plethoric habits, and therefore orders repeated bleedings 
before its exhibition. Externally Savin is recommended as an 
escharotic to foul ulcers, syphilitic warts, &c.* 
* Bergius states its virtus to be emmenagoga, abortiens, diuretica, sanguinem 
movens. Mat. Med. p. 814. 
© Hinc in uterino fluxu ciendo adeo potens, qua vi abuse subinde feruntur 
communi fere effato, a.Galeno inde tempore deducto, sceleste matres ad abortum 
excitandum, sed haud absque proprio vite periculo vel ante partum vel mox post 
istum. (Storch Hebammenb. p. 220.) Suspecte huic nature subscripsit judicium 
Facultatis medicz Lipsiensis. (Ammann. med. crit. p. 42. See Murray App. 
Med. vol. %. p.42. And Haller |. c. 
" M. M. vol. tt. p. 366. * Clinical Exper .p. 387. » Fabre, Mal. vener. T. i. p. 365. 
