MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA. ORD. XV. Rotacee. 979 
jaundice, ‘asthma, periodical head-achs, intermittents, hypochon- 
driasis, cachexia, obstructio mensium, rheumatism, scrophula, 
“worms, gout. Dr. Boerhaave was relieved in the last mentioned 
complaint by drinking the juice mixed with whey ;‘ and Dr. Alston 
tells us, that “this plant had remarkable effects in the gout, in 
keeping off “ the Paroxysms;” but adds, “ though not to the 
patient’s advantage.”’* 
In confirmation of the good effects of Water Trefoil in dropsies, 
we are told that sheep, when forced to eat it, are ‘ cured of the 
ot; (oves tabida ) yet as we have but few and imperfect proofs of 
' its diuretic powers, this fact will be considered of little weight. 
Bergius confines the uses of this plant to scorbutus, leucophleg- 
matia, arthritis, rheumatismus, cacoethes,* and this specification is 
still farther contracted by later writers on the Materia Medica. In 
Lewis’s Mat. Med. (by Mr. Aikin ) it is said, that the leaves of buck- 
bean “ have of late years come into common use as an alterative 
«< and aperient,; in impurities of the humours, and. some hydropic 
«* and rheumatic cases;’”? and as an active and eccoprotic bitter, 
we should suppose them not ill adapted to supply the want of bile 
in the prime vie, and thus infer their use in protracted jaundice, 
‘and other biliary obstructions. Dr. Cullen has “had several in- ° 
** stances of their good. effects in some cutaneous diseases of the 
* herpatic and seemingly cancerous kind.” * 
~ The leaves may be given in powder from 3i to Dij for a dose 
two or three times a day, but a strong infusion of them is “perhaps 
preferable, and with delicate stomachs it may be necessary to con- 
join a grateful aromatick: they impart their properties both to 
watery and spirituous menstrua, and an extract js ordered to be 
prepared from them in the Ph. Dan. p. 171. Bosca: et ae 
commodique usus. Murray. 
4 Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. I. ann, FIL. Obs. 123. (this answers Dr. Alston’s query, 
who asks, ‘¢ Where is this related?” Alston, Mat. Med. vol 2, p. 240. 
; £4SC. f Dr. T. Robinson, & Mat. Med, vol 1, p. 91, 
* Mat. Med. vol. 2. p. 75. 
