172 



NAT. ORDER. VERTICILLAT.*:. 



water, by maceration for a short time, becomes richly impregnated 

 with its flavor. Dry mint, digested in rectified spirit, either cold or 

 with a gentle warmth, gives out readily- its peculiar taste and smell, 

 without imparting the grosser and more ungrateful matter. The 

 tincture appears by day-light of a fine dark green, by candle-light 

 of a dark red color; a tincture extracted from the remaining mint 

 with fresh spirit, appears in both lights green ; the color of both 

 tinctures change in keeping, to a brown. 



Medical Properties and Uses. To spear-77iint we may ascribe 

 the same medical properties which are given to peppermint; but 

 the different j^reparations of the former, though more pleasant, are 

 perhai:)s less efficacious. It contains considerable essential oil, but 

 of an odor much less agreeable than that of lavander. It is there- 

 fore less employed as a cephalic, but acts very powerfully on the 

 parts to which it is immediately applied, especially on the stomach, 

 invigorating all its functions. It acts powerfully as an anti-spasmod- 

 ic, relieving pain and cholic depending upon spasm. It is also suc- 

 cessfully administered in many cases of severe vomiting, giving 

 relief in a few minutes. Practitioners who have been in the habit 

 of using mint, all agree that the infusion of its leaves in warm wa- 

 ter, agrees better with the stomach than the distilled water. To 

 allay nausea and relieve spasmodic pains of the stomach and bow- 

 els, or to cover the taste and qualify the nauseating or griping effects 

 of other medicines are among the most common purposes for which 

 it is used. The fresh herb, bruised and applied over the epigastri- 

 um often allays sick stomach, and is highly useful in the cholera of 

 children. We are told that when cows have eaten of the mint, es- 

 pecially the Mentha arveniss, which they will do at the end of sum- 

 mer, when the pastures are bare and short of feed, their milk can 

 hardly be made to yield cheese ; a circumstance which sometimes 

 puzzles the dairy-maids. The officinal preparations are an oil, a 

 tincture, and a disl lied water. 



