. On Waters distilled from hiodorous Plants. 7 



It is nevertheless certain that its properties are very remark- 

 able, particularly when it is prepared by successive cohoba- 

 tions. I know a lady who is extremely nervous, and who 

 never fails, when she has occasion for a sedative, to take, at 

 bed-time, two or three ounces of well distilled lettuce water : 

 this has always the same effect as liquid laudanum, which 

 she had formerly used in great quantities. 



But if the water distilled from lettuce possesses some in- 

 fluence, why may not the same result from all the other in- 

 odorous plants ? Thus, when I hear it maintained that the 

 waters produced from centaury, argentine, pellitory, purs- 

 lane, orpine, &c. ought to be dismissed from our dispensa- 

 tories, I conclude that those who are of this opinion have 

 never employed these waters when properly prepared, or 

 have not accurately noticed their effects. 



Waters distilled from inodorous plants are not only useful 

 in medicine, but in the arts also they are often employed to 

 advantage. 



I shall take the present opportunity of quoting an obser- 

 vation communicated to me by M.Despres, a distinguished 

 chemist of Paris, and to whom we may pay so much the 

 more credit, as that gentleman adds to an extensive know- 

 ledge, the most scrupulous probity and the most perfect 

 correctness. I understand from him, that not only has he 

 successfully employed as medicines the above kind of di- 

 stilled waters, but that even the manufacturers of gauze, who 

 arc very numerous in Paris, could never give their gauzes 

 that lustre, brilliance, and consistency, for which they are 

 so eminent, but by macerating them in the distilled water of 

 argentine (peritaphylloides, argenteum alatum, seupotentilla) . 

 M.Despres added, that his servants, having substituted com- 

 mon distilled water in place of the above water, the manu- 

 facturers came to him to complain that they had been im- 

 posed upon. We must certainly admit that argentine is not 

 a very odorous plant ; nevertheless, if the- water produced 

 from it has a decided action upon the silk of which the gauze 

 is made, we need not longer doubt that it acts also upon 

 the animal ceconomy, and that its effects ought to differ 

 from those produced by common distilled water. 



A 4 From 



