} 
486 ORD. XXVI. Multisilique.” pxonta OFFICINALIS. 
College, it had a place in the catalogue of the Materia Medica ; 
in which the two common varieties of this plant are indiscrimi- 
-natély directed for use, and, on the authority of C. Bauhine, © 
improperly distinguished into male and female Peony. 
«« The roots and seeds of Peony have, when fresh, a faint un- 
pleasant smell, somewhat of the narcotic kind; and a mucilaginous 
subacrid taste, with a slight degree of bitterness and astringency. 
In drying they lose their smell, and part of their taste. Extracts. 
made from them by water are almost instpid, as well as inodorous; 
but extracts made by rectified spirit are manifestly bitterish and 
considerably astringent. 7 ; 
“« The flowers have rather more smell than any of the other 
parts of the plant, and a rough sweetish taste, which they impart, 
together with their colour, both to water and spirit.”* 
The roots, flowers, and seeds of Peony have been esteemed in 
the character of an anodyne and corroborant, but more especially 
the roots; which since the days of Galen® have been very com- 
monly employed as a remedy for the epilepsy. For this purpose 
it was usual to cut the root into thin slices, which were to be 
attached to a string, and suspended about the neck as an amulet; 
if this failed of success, the patient was to have recourse to the 
internal use of this root, which Willis‘ directs to be given in the 
form of powder, and in the quantity of a dram two or three times 
a day, by which, as we are informed, both infants and adults 
were cured of this disease. Other authors recommend the ex-~ 
pressed juice to be given in wine, and sweetened with sugar, 
as the most effectual way of administering this plant. Many 
writers,* however, especially in modern times, from repeated trials 
of the Peony in epileptic cases, have found it of no use whatever; 
though professor Home, who gave the radix pzonie to two 
* Lewis. l. c. 
» De simp. lib. 6. p. 807. Rice. 
* Pathol. Cerebri. cap. 3. 4 Boerhaave, Haller, Tissot, and others, 
