762 ORD. XLVI. Ziliacee. -co.cuicum avtumwate. 
deleterious acrimony were destroyed, it might prove in this 
character an efficacious medicine; accordingly he digested an 
ounce of the recent root sliced in a pound of vinegar for forty- 
eight hours with a gentle heat; the vinegar being then strained, 
it proved acrid to the taste, constringed and irritated the fauces, 
and excited a slight cough; to obviate which, he mixed the vinegar 
with twice its weight of honey, and gently boiled it down to the 
consistence of honey, forming an oxymel sufficiently grateful, 
and which, taken in doses of a dram, promoted a copious discharge 
of urine, without producing any inconvenience from its acrimony, 
though it moderately stimulated the fauces, and absterged the 
mucus. Thus, like the squill, it was found both expectorant and 
diuretic; and the successful use of this medicine in various 
hydropic disorders in the hospital at Vienna, equalled the Baron’s 
utmost eubcciations: He recommends, at first, a dram of the 
ms 7 i wi in_any suitable vehicle, and 
gradually to increase the don to am ounce or more ina day. 
Many other practitioners, who employed the oxymel colchici in 
these complaints, also experienced its good effects, especially in 
Germany’ and France,’ where it continues to be a favourite medi- 
cine: in England, however, the Colchicum has been less success- 
ful," and is very generally thought a less efficacious diuretic than 
the squill, which excells it still more as an expectorant. The 
London College, conformably to the practice of Stoerck, directs 
an oxymel colchici, and that of Edinburgh a syrup; the latter 
however differs from the former only in using sugar instead of 
honey. 
P As Zach, Krapf, Plenck, Collin, Ehrmann, and others. 
1 We may here mention Marges, Planchon, Du/Moncean, &c. &c. 
' Vide Med. Obs. & Ing. vol. 3. pref. See also Monro’s Essay on Dropsy, p. 108, 
eS 
