766 ORD. XLVI. Liliacee. CROCUS SATIVUS. 
also assured, that it penetrates every part of the body, tinging the 
solids and excretions with a yellow colour;' and that even the 
odour or effluvia of this drug, have been known to produce dele- 
terious effects* It appears, however, from the experiments of 
Dr. Alexander,’ that Saffron possesses but very little active power, 
and may be taken in considerable quantity, without producing 
any remarkable effect: and it was lately given in the Edinburgh 
Infirmary, by Dr. Henry Cullen, even to the extent of half an 
ounce a-day, in several hysterical cases, without any sensible effect 
whatever.* 
Writers on the Materia Medica have very generally considered 
Saffron as a most exhilarating cordial; and for this purpose 
Boerhaave preferred the extract, inspissated only to the con- 
sistence of oil: but the observations of modern physicians do not 
furnish us with one instance in which this drug had any remarkable 
effect in -raising_the spirits: on the contrary Bergius informs us, 
that a lady always experienced g great despondency by taking this 
medicine. It has been sunpeicd of considerable efficacy as an 
emmenagogue ; Riverius mentions a singular case of its powerful 
action in this way." Dr. Cullen also informs us, that he has found 
it to succeed in this character in one or two instances; but that in 
many others, though repeatedly employed in large doses, no good 
effect was produced.” Another quality for which Saffron has been 
esteemed, is that of an antiseptic; yet though, ( according to the 
experiments of Sir John Pringle,°) it manifested the power of re- 
tarding the putrefactive process of animal matter, we have no 
proof of its efficacy in this way on the living body, infected by a 
* Hertodt, Crocologia. p- 279. 
* Borellus. Hist, et Obs. cent. 4. Obs. 35. p. 303. Tralles, de Opio. sect. 1, 
p- 114. Sacut. Lusit. 1. c. 
) Experimental Essays, p. 88. 
* See Duncan’s Edinburgh New Dispensatory, p. 178. 
= Opera ed. Horst. p, 136. " Cullen. M. M. vol. ii, p. 313. 
° Diseases of the Army, App. p. 20. 
