Chap. 37.] THE WILLOW. 25 



proach of serpents. 56 The seed 57 is good for pains in the 

 stomach, chest, and sides ; it dispels flatulency and sudden 

 chills, soothes cough, and brings indurations to a head. Ap- 

 plied topically, it checks the growth of tumours ; and the 

 berries, taken in red wine, act astringently upon the bowels : 

 they are applied also to tumours of the abdomen. The seed 

 is used as an ingredient in antidotes of an aperient nature, and 

 ia diuretic 58 in its effects. It is used as a liniment for de- 

 fluxions of the eyes, and is prescribed for convulsions, rup- 

 tures, griping pains in the bowels, affections of the uterus, 

 and sciatica, either in a dose of four berries in white wine, or 

 in the form of a decoction of twenty berries in wine. 



There are persons who rub the body with juniper berries as 

 a preventive of the attacks of serpents. 



CHAP. 37. (9.) THE WILLOW : FOURTEEN REMEDIES. THB 

 WILLOW OF AMERIA : ONE REMEDY. 



The fruit of the willow, 59 before it arrives at maturity, is 

 covered with a down like a spider's web : gathered 60 before it 

 is ripe, it arrests discharges of blood from the mouth. The 

 bark of the upper branches, reduced to ashes and mixed with 

 water, is curative of corns and callosities : it removes spots 

 also upon the face, being still more efficacious for that purpose 

 if mixed with the j uices of the tree. 



The juices produced by the willow form three different 

 varieties ; one 61 of which exudes in the shape of a gum from 



56 Virgil says this of the fumes of the cedar, Georg. III. 414; an 

 additional proof, Fee says, that under the name of " cedrus," the juniper 

 was really meant. The smoke of the juniper is not known to have the 

 effect upon serpents here described. 



5 > The berries of the juniper contain sugar, mucilage, and a small pro- 

 portion of essential oil ; a rob is prepared from them, Fee says, under the 

 name of "extract of juniper." 



58 It is a well-known fact, that juniper berries are diuretic ; they impart 

 also to the urine the odour of the violet, a property which is equally pos- 

 sessed by turpentine. All the other properties here attributed to the 

 juniper, are, in Fee's opinion, either hypothetical or absurd. 



69 See B. xvi. c. 68. 



60 Neither this downy substance nor the seeds are now employed for 

 any purpose. The bark of the willow has some strongly-pronounced pro- 

 perties, but all other parts of it are totally inert. 



61 A kind of manna, Fee says. The other juices here mentioned are 

 secreted from the sap. 



