RUBIA TINCTORUM. ORD. IX. Stellate. 175 
which was first noticed by Antonius Mizaldus,* but not known in 
England till Mr. Belchier published an account of a pig and a cock,, 
whose bones became red by eating Madder mixed with their food;* 
since that time various experiments relating to this subject have 
been made, from which it appears that the colouring-matter of 
Madder affects the bones in a very short time, and that the most 
solid, or hardest, part of the bones first receives the red colour, 
which gradually extends, eb externo, through the whole osseous 
substance, while the animal continues to take the Madder; and if 
this root be alternately intermitted and employed for a sufficient 
length of time, and at proper intervals, the bones are found to be 
coloured in a correspondent number of concentric circles. Accord- 
ding to Lewis, “the roots of Madder have a bitterish somewhat 
austere taste, and a slight smell not of the agreeable kind. They 
impart to water a dark red tincture, to rectilied: spirit, and to distilled 
oils, a bright red; both. ex watery and spirituous tinctures taste 
strongly As the Madder.” 
Madder, by medicinal writers, has. been considered as a deob- 
struent, detergent, and diuretic, and is chiefly used in the jaundice, 
-dropsy, and: bther diseases supposed to’ proceéd from visceral ob- 
Structions, particularly those of the liver and. kidneys; and some 
modern authors have recommended it as an emmenagogue,’ and in 
rickety affections." With regard ‘to its diuretic quality, for which 
there are many respectable authorities, Dr. Cullen. asserts,. that 
in many trials both for this and other purposes, such an effect is 
not constant, having never occurred to him. Asa remedy for the 
jaundice, it has the authority of Sydenham, and was formerly an 
ingredient in the decoctum ad icteros of the Edin. Pharm. but as it 
feeined more adapted to the;feeces albide than to the disease itself, 
4 Memorab. ut. ac jucunda Cent. 7. Aph, 91. Lutet. 1566. 
© Phil. Trans. vol: 39: ps 287. & ps 299+ See also.vol. 41. Afterwards experi- 
ments were prosecuted by Bazanus, Geoffrey, Du Hamel, Fougeroux, Bergius, 
and a o. 
* Mat. Med. p. 546. _& See Home’s Clinical sh Ee p. 388, ® Leovret, l. cs. 
and ae 
