_ LITHOSPERMUM OFfFicinaLE. | ORD. XVIII. Asperifolie. 305 
naturalists. Pliny considered them as the greatest curiosity in the 
vegetable world: “ Nec quicquam inter herbas majore quidem 
miraculo aspexi. Tantus est decor, velut aurificum arte alternis 
inter folia candicantibus margaritis: tam exquisita difficultas lapidis 
ex herba nascentis.”* 
Grew relates, that the hard crustaceous part effervesces with 
acids;* but the experiment has been since tried by others without 
effect : the internal substance of the seed is softer, and seems to con- 
sist of a farinaceous, sweet, and oily matter, becoming rancid on 
being long kept. 
Formerly when medicine was under the dominion of superstition 
and absurd conceits, a notion prevailed, that nature pointed out 
remedies for different complaints, by bearing a certain resemblance 
and sign of the disease or part affected: hence the stony appearance 
_ of these seeds was deemed a «ertain indication of their efficacy in 
calculous and gravelly disorders. And though modern writers on 
the Materia Medica give no credit to the lithontriptic character of 
sem. milli solis, yet they generally ascribe to them a diuretic 
quality, a power of cleansing the urinary passages, and of ob- 
viating stranguary, especially when employed in the form of an 
Snulsions ;* but probably the free use of any bland diluent would 
answer these purposes equally well. 
The absorbent virtue attributed to’ these seeds is wholly without 
foundation, pene irreconcileable to the principles of chemistry. 
~ Plin. lib. 27. c. 1}, © Grew. Mixt. corp. p. 22. 
¢ Lotum movere hisce quidem credo, et in stranguria efficere aliquid posse, quum 
ob nucleum emulsive nature sit. Murray, /. c. _ See others also of this opinion. 
No. 26.—vot. 2. A® 
