\ 
320 ORD. XIX. Verticillate. HYSSOPUS OFFICINALIS. 
matter both to water and to rectified spirit; to the last most per- 
fectly. On inspissating the spirituous tincture, very little of the 
flavour of the herb exhales or distills with the menstruum: the 
remaining extract is bitterish, and very warm, and discovers a 
penetrating pungency, somewhat like that of camphor. Water, 
distilled from the fresh herb, is found pretty strongly impregnated 
- with its flavour: an essential oil separates and rises to the sur/ace, 
which is very pungen’, and in smell exactly resembles the Hyssop.”* 
Dr. Cullen classes this and all the verticillated plants as stimu- 
lants, and this quality is to be ascribed to the quantity of essential 
oil which: they contain; the Hyssop ‘therefore may be esteemed 
aromatic and stimulant; and with a view to these effects, Bergius 
recommends it as an emmenagogue and antihysteric ;* but it is 
chiefly employed as a pectoral, and has been long thought an use- 
ful medicine in humeral asthmas, Coughs, and ixtavthak: affections; 
for this purpose, an infusion of the leaves, sweetened with honey 
‘ 
or sugar, and drank as tea, is recommended by Lewis. The exter- 
nal application of Hyssop is said to be particularly efficacious in the 
way of fomentation and poultice, in contusions, and for removing 
the blackness occasioned by the extravassated fluids.* 
» Lewis M. M. p. 348. * M. M. p.. 512. 
@ All the old writers praise it highly in this respect: Nec excluduntur sugillationes 
oculorum quibus herba intra sacculum aqua vel vino decocta clausis palpebris sub- 
venit. Riolan. and Sim. Pauli. 
It is also recommended as a vermifuge by Rosenstein. Barns jukd. p. 358. 
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