598 3 ORD. XXXVI. Dumose. SAMBUCUS NIGRA. 
for medicinai use in the Pharmacopeeias,‘ are the inner bark, the 
flowers, and the berries. The first has scarcely any smell, and very 
little taste: on first chewing, it impresses a degree of sweetishness, 
which is followed by a very slight, but durable acrimony, in which 
its powers seem to reside, and which it imparts both to watery and 
‘Spirituous menstrua. It is strongly cathartic, and on this account 
was much used by Sydenham“ and Boerhaave,* who recommend 
it as an effectual hydragogue; the former directs three handfuls 
of it to be boiled in a quart of milk and water, till only a pint 
remains, of which one half is to be taken night and morning, and 
repeated for several days: it usually operates both upwards and 
downwards, and upon the evacuations it produces its utility ° 
depends. Boerhaave gave its expressed juice in doses from a 
dram to half an ounce. In smaller doses it is said to be an usefu! 
aperient and deobstruent in various chronical disorders. 
“ The flowers have an agreeable flavour, which they give over 
in distillation with water, and impart by infusion both to water 
and rectified spirit: on distilling a large quantity of them with 
water, a small portion of a butyraceous essential oil separates. 
Infusions made from the fresh flowers are gently laxative and 
aperient: when dry they are said to promote chiefly the cuticular 
excretion, and to be particularly serviceable in erysipelatous and 
eruptive disorders.” Externally they are used in fomentations, 
&c. and in the London Pharmacopeeia directed in the form of an 
ointment. ‘ The berries, in taste, are somewhat sweetish, and not 
unpleasant; on expression, they yield a fine purple juice, which 
_ proves an useful aperient and resolvent in recent colds and sundry 
chronical diseases, gently loosening the belly, and promoting 
urine and perspiration.” The officinal preparation of these 
berries is the succus baccz sambuci spissatus. (Pharm. Lond.) 
© The leaves are purgative like the bark, but more nauseous. 
: * Oper. p. 496. * Hist. Plant. P. I. p. 207. 
* Lewis M. M. p. 576, 
