VERATRUM ALBUM. ORD. XLVI. Litiacee. 7b? 
internally in several diseases, especially those of a chronic and» 
obstinate kind, as. mania,. melancholia, hydrops, elephantiasis, 
epilepsia, vitiligo, lepra, rabies canina, &c. they considered it the’ 
safer when it excited vomiting, and Hippocrates wished this to be, 
its first effect.. To those of weak constitutions, as women, children. 
old men, and those labouring under pulmonary complaints, its 
exhibition was deemed unsafe; and even when given to the 
robust it was thought necessary to moderate its violence by dif- 
ferent combinations and preparations ; for it was frequently ob- 
served to effect a cure not only by its immediate action upon the 
prima viz, -but when no sensible evacuation was promoted by its 
use. * Sa 
Similar observations have been made of Veratrum by authors of 
later times: Mayerne' gave from two to three grains of an extract > 
of this root with considerable advantage in sininca! cases, where 
no remarkable evacuation took place ; 3 and Con. Gesner," who 
investigated the qualities of Veratrum by repeated experiments, 
and whose encomiums on its efficacy seemed for a while to restore 
it to the ancient character of Hellebore, expressly declares, that he 
did not give it as an evacuant, but to produce the more gradual 
effects of those medicines termed alteratives. Gesner’s account of 
Bergius says, ‘* Ego vix a memet impetrare potero, ut radicis, ita intense 
yenenate, usum internum cuiquam suasurus sim, nisi summa adhibita circum- 
spicientia ; etenim constat, eam, in satis parca dosi propinatam, sepe horrenda 
symptomata excitasse, ut sitim, cardialgiam, tormina, singultum, suffocationes, 
convulsiones, tremores, inflammationem primarum viarum, lipothymias, sudorem 
irigetam, immo & mortem.” 7. ¢. 
~* Hippocr. weer epee in Oper. ed. Lind. fom. ¢. p. 610, Et Aphorism. 
Sest. iv. rs 13— 
Prax. Med. Lid. i. c. 7. p. 69. sq. 
™ He aks “non ad purgandum, sed ad reserandes meatus & crassos humores 
attennandum. m, eosque a centro & interioribus corporis ad superficiam & vias exere- 
tionum variarum educendum.” Adding, ‘‘ recreat & roberat, & hilariorem facit, 
& acuit ingenium : guod in me & aliis sepissime expertus scribo,” Had Gesner 
lived long enongh, he had still more to say on this subject,  “ : Ego, si vixero, 
in Ellebori historia multa proferam, quee medici admireatur. ” Lc. 
No. 55.—vo1, 4. oF 
