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COCHLEARIA OFFICINALIS. ORD. XXII. Siliquose. | 395 
effectual of all the antiscorbutic plants,* and its sensible qualities 
are sufficiently powerful to confirm this opinion. In the rheuma- 
tismus vagus, called by Sydenham Rheumatismus scorbuticus, 
consisting of wandering pains of long continuance, accompanied 
with fever, this plant, combined with Arum and wood-sorrel, is 
highly commended both by Sydenham and Lewis.*—A remarkably 
volatile and pungent spirit, prepared from this herb, and known 
by the name of Spi) tius antiscorbuticus s. mixtura simplex antiscor- 
butica Drawizti.[. (Pharm. Wert.) was found by Werlhof* to be a 
useful remedy in paralysis and other diseases requiring an active 
and powerful stimulant, given in the dose of thirty drops several 
times a day. ‘ But as an antiscorbutic, neither this, nor the conserve 
promises so much benefit as the fresh plant, eaten as sallad, or the 
expressed juice, as directed in the Pharmacopeeias. 
* We have testimony of its great use in scurvy, not only from physicians, but 
‘navigators, as Anson, Linschoten, Maartens, Egede, and others. And it has been 
justly noticed, that this plant grows most plentifully in those high latitudes, where 
the scurvy is most obnoxious: Forster found it in great abundance in the islands 
of the South Sea. In [slandia parant incole hance herbam cum lacte acidalato vel 
ejus sero; condiunt eam etiam sale culinari in magnis doliis, & per hiemem servant. 
Cum oves in locis, ubi Cochlearia crescit, pascuntur, avide quidem illam edunt & 
valde pinguescunt, sed caro nauseoso sapore inficitur. Olafsen. Reise durch 
Island. T. 1, p. 257. Vide Berg. M. M. 557. 
4 Opera 278. M. M. 241. - 
+ Fit ex spiritu tartari et spiritu cochlearie, quibus vitriolum ad rubidinem cal- 
emai irroratur, succedente digestione et distillatione. Murray Ap. Med. vol. 
2. p. 347. 
© Obs. de febr. p. 145. Dr. Cullen observes, that ‘* several foreign dispen- 
satories have ordered it to be treated by distillation with spirit of wine, and have 
thereby obtained a volatile poignant spirit, that may prove a useful stimulus in 
several cases. It may probably be improved by a combination with the volatile 
acid of tartar, as in the spiritus antiscorbuticus Drawiétzii, and in this state may be 
a useful stimulant in paralytic cases; it may also be employed as a “eee and 
in this way also be useful in scurvy.” M. M. vol. 2. 165. 
