24 • NAT. ORDER. LAURACE^. 



nary purposes, and in this way they were very much used by the 

 Romans. And the leaves both of this and the common laurel were 

 frequently used in custards, &c., but the practice has by most been 

 discontinued, since the recent and fatal proof of the poisonous qual- 

 ities was made public. To such we would observe, that the com- 

 mon laurel, or Piunus lauro ccrasus of Linnaeus, differs in every 

 respect, from the plant here described, both in its effects and in its 

 botanical characters. It may be remarked, however, that the dele- 

 te rcous part of it is the essential oil, which requires to be separated 

 by distillization, in order to become an active poison. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The leaves and berries possess the 

 same medicinal properties, both having a sweet fragrant smell, and 

 an aromatic astringent taste. In distillization with water the 

 leaves yield a small quantity of very fragrant essential oil ; with 

 rectified spirit they afford a moderately warm pungent extract ; the 

 berries yield a larger quantity of essential oil; they discover like- 

 wise a degree of unctuosity in the mouth, give oait to the press an 

 almost insipid fluid oil, and on being boiled in water, appears on the 

 surface, a thick butyraceous oil, of a yellowish green color, impreg- 

 nated with the flavor of the berry. The oil thus obtained may be 

 used with safety and advantage in assisting digestion ; and it has 

 even been thought to obviate the poisonous effects of the laurel. 



The Laurus of honorary memory, the distinguished favorite of 

 Apollo, may be naturally supposed to possess extraordinary fame as 

 a medicine, but its pharmacutical uses are so limited in the pres- 

 ent j^ractice, that this dignified plant is now rarely emjiloyed, except 

 by the way of enema, or as an external application ; thus in the 

 London Pharmacopoeia the leaves are directed in the decotum pro 

 fomento, and the berries in the emplastrum cumini. The berries 

 however appear to possess some share of medicinal efficacy, and if 

 we do not allow them to be so extensively useful as rejjresented by 

 S. Bauhin, Tournefort, Goeff'ry, and some others, yet we have no 

 doubt of their possessing highly valuable emn>enagogue properties 



