$90 ; ORD. XXI. Rheeades. CHELIDONIUM MAJUS. 
This acrid plant has been much recommended in the general 
character of an aperient and attenuant. In jaundice it was long 
considered as the most effectual remedy that could be employed, 
as appears from the writings of Dioscorides, Galen, Forestus, and 
other authors of more recent date; hence it was a principal ingre- 
dient in the decoctum ad ictericos in the Edinburgh Pharmacopeeia. 
Nor has its use been confined to hepatic obstructions; in those of 
the other viscera, as weil as in the mesenteric and lymphatic 
glands, it is said to have been equally efficacious.” 
It has also been successfully employed as an expectorant; and 
several writers found it of great efficacy in curing intermittents.* 
It has been administered in various forms and doses. Half a dram, 
or a dram of the dry root in powder, or an infusion in wine or 
water of a dram, or a dram and an half, of the fresh root, or three 
or four drops of its yellow juice in any convenient vehicle, are’ 
directed for a dose. We have little doubt but that the virtues of 
Celandine have been greatly exaggerated, and its general employ- 
ment in jaundice seems to have originated in the absurd doctrine 
of signatures: in certain cases however we should expect to find 
it an useful remedy, for it evidently possesses active powers; and 
thus it is externally used to destroy warts, clean foul ulcers, and 
remove opacities of the cornea. 
* Lange, De Med. Bruns. p, 124, © See Murray. t. co 
