«= 
LAVANDULA SPIGA. ORD. XIX. Vérticillate. 303 
tracts the virtue of Lavender more completely than water. The 
spirit elevates also in distillation a considerable part of the odori- 
ferous matter of the leaves, and greatest part of that of the flowers; 
leaving in the inspissated extracts a moderate = geney and bitter- 
ness, with very little smell.”¢ 
Lavender has been an officinal plant for a considerable time, 
though we have no certain accounts of it given by the ancients: its _ 
medicinal virtue resides in the essential oil, which is siipposed to 
be a gentle corroberant and stimulant of the aromatic kind,* and is 
recommended in nervous debilities and various affections proceed- 
ing from a want of energy in thé animal functions. According to 
Dr. Cullen, it is, “ whether externally. applied or given internally, 
“a powerful stimulant to the nervous system; and among the 
* others of this order, named Cephalics, the Lavender has a very 
“* good and perhaps the best title toit.” And he further says, “ it 
“ appears to me probable, that it will seldom go further than ex- 
“ citing the energy of the brain to a fuller impulse of the nervous 
“© power into the nerves of the animal functions, and seldom inte 
* those of the vital. It may however be with great propriety, 
that Professor Murray has dissuaded its use where there is any 
© danger from a stimulus applied to the sanguiferous system. It is 
© however still probable, that Lavender commonly stimulates the 
“ nervous system only, and therefore may be more safe in palsy 
“ than the warmer aromatics, especially if the Lavender be not 
“ given in a spirituous menstruum, or along with heating aromatics, 
« which however is commonly done in the case of the spiritus 
« Javendulz compositus.”! The officinal preparations of Lavender, 
are the essential oil, a simple spirit, and a compound tincture. 
# Lewis’s Mat. Med. p. 371. 
e Bergius says, Virtus: nervina, resolvens, tonica, emmenagoga, Usus: externus. 
NM. M. ps §13. . 
ee f Mat. Med, vol. ii, p. 148, 
