*504 TORMENTILLA EREeTA. ORD. XXVIII: Senticose. 
oak bark in the tanning of skins for leather.* This root has been 
long held in great estimation by physicians, as a very useful 
astringent; and as the resin’ it contains is very inconsiderable, it 
seems more particularly adapted to those cases where the heating 
and stimulating medicines of this class are less proper, as phthisi- 
cal diarrhoeas, diarrhoea cruenta, &c. Dr. Cullen‘ thinks “ it has 
been justly commended for every virtue that is competent to 
astringents,” and says, ‘“ I myself have had several instances of its 
virtues in this respect ; and particularly I have found it, both by 
itself and as joined with gentian, cure intermittent fevers; but 
it must be given in substance, and in large quantities.” Rutty 
recommends it in these words: ‘ Ulcera vetera & putrida sanat 
vino vel aqua decocta collutione & inspersu. In vino cocta 
optime deterget & roberat, in ulceribus scorbuticis oris, gutturis, 
& faucitum ac in gingivis dissolutis, sanguinem  stillantibus. 
Decocta ad appetitum deperditum maxime valet, tonum ventri- 
culi restituens, & sordes ejus abstergens. Non est vegetabile 
quod in fluxionibus alvi efficacius sit. In dysenterea epidemica 
quidam in ore tenent ad praecavendum contagium, In fluxu 
sanguinis, fluore albo, & mictu involuntario galet = 
This root may be given in powder from half a dram to one dram 
or more for a dose, ru it is more generally given in decoction, 
and the following form is recommended by Lewis: An ounce and 
an half of the powdered root is directed to be boiled in three 
pints of water to a quart, adding, towards the end of the boiling, 
adram of cinnamon: of the strained liquor, sweetened with an 
ounce of any agreeable syrup, two ounces or more may. be taken 
four or five times a day. 
Tormentil is ordered in the pulvis e creta Rempostns of the 
London Pharmacopeeia. 
* Bartholini Act. Med. Hafn. vy. 1. ps 88. and it has been observed,. that the 
leather bas been pe fected in loss ‘dave than when oak bark was used. Mus . Rust. 
vol. 2. m.-42. p. $1. 
* It gives out its astringency both to water and rectified spirit, most perfect ly 
to the latter. The extracts obtained bY Pitiat ssation, are intensly styptic, the 
spirituous most so. Lewis’s Mat. Med 
* Cullen’s Mat. Mat. vol. 2, p. ce _ © Rutty’s Mat. Med. 521. 
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