346 PRIMULACE#. 
choly, and Quercitanus made it a speciality in his treatment of 
mania. Ravenstein and Gwelin record cases in which persons 
bitten by rabid animals were cured by the nse of this herb; it 
was administered internally and also applied to the bitten part. 
Most of these physicians considered it to be an efficacious 
remedy in gout, dropsy, and pulmonary complaints. Orfila 
places Anagallis among the narcotico-acrids, and gives the 
following account of its effects upon animals :—‘‘ At eight 
in the morning three drachms of the extract of pimpernel,. 
prepared by evaporating ina water-bath the juice of the fresh 
plant, were introduced inte the stomach of a robust dog. At 
six in the evening he was dejected, and at eleven sensibility 
appeared diminished. The next morning, at six, he was lying 
down, apparently dead, and might be displaced like a mass of 
inert matter. He expired half an hour after.. The mucous — 
membrane of the stomach was slightly inflamed ; the interior of 
the rectum was ofa bright red colour ; the ventricles of the 
heart were distended by black coagulated blood; the lungs - 
presented several livid spots, and their texture was preterna- 
turally dense. ‘Two drachms of the same extract, applied to 
the cellular tissue of a dog’s thigh, caused death in twelve 
‘hours with the same symptoms as the preceding. M. Gronier 
gave to horses some tolerably strong doses of the decoction 
of this plant, and he observed almost constantly a trembling of 
the muscles of the posterior extremities as well as those of the 
_ throat, and a copious flow of urine. After death the mucous 
membrane of the stomach was found inflamed.” 
In India, Anagallis is used as a fish-poison, and also to kill 
leeches, which sometimes get lodged in the nostrils of those 
who frequent the jungles in the rainy season. Both the blue 
and the red flowered varieties dre found i in Western India ; the 
blue being the common one eastward. 
~ Description.—Root ‘oe, ‘stem badiched - ‘feohn“the 
_ lower part, often dotted with purple, more or less procumbent, 
Square. Leaves sessile, ovate, many-ribbed,” dotted with 
purple at the —_— -Pedancles angu 
