VIOLA LOBELIA. ORD. XII. Campanacee. 253 
The Viola odorata is evidently the to uiaw of Theophrastus, and 
the tov soggy of Dioscorides ; it was also well known to the Arabian 
physicians, as Mesue commends its use highly in various inflamma- 
tory diseases. Viola is likewise frequently mentioned by the Latin 
poets, who allude to its effetts as a vulnerary.. The recent flowers 
only are now received in the catalogues of the Materia Medica ; 
they have an agreeable sweet smell, and a mucilaginous bitterish 
taste; to water they readily give out both their virtue and their 
fine flavour, but scarcely impart any tincture to rectified spirit, 
though they impregnate the spirit with their flavour. These flowers 
taken in the quantity of a dram or two are said to be gently pur- 
gative or laxative, and according to Bergius, and some others, 
they possess an anodyne and pectoral quality. The officinal pre- 
paration of these flowers is a syrup,‘ which to young children an- 
swers the purpose of a purgative. This syrup is also found useful 
in many chemical inquiries to detect an acid or an alkali, the for- 
mer changing the blue colour to a red, the latter toa green. The 
seeds of Violets are reported to be strongly diuretic, and use- 
ful in gravelly complaints* The root powdered, in the dose of a 
dram, proves both emetic and cathartic." 
* Vide Lewis’s Mat. Med. p. 664. ¢ Vide Ovid Metamorph. lib. x. v. 190. 
* This syrup is usually prepared from the petals of the cultivated Violet; and Dr. 
Withering tells us, that at Stratford upon Avon large quantities of the Violet are 
cultivated for this purpose. I. c. ; 
£ See the authorities cited by Murray, App. Med. v. 7. p. 519. 
» Tournefort Hist. des Plant. de Paris, t.é. p.291. Henninger Diss. de Viola purpur. 
No, 22.—von. 2. 3s 
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