216 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



caping from cultivation, it is found wild throughout 

 most of the temperate regions of the world. Parkinson, 

 1640, speaks of it as a garden plant only, (492), and its 

 mention in early medieval lists of plants demonstrates 

 that it was cultivated in the convent gardens of the 9th 

 century. Turner's Herball, (656), 1568, calls it Spere 

 Mynte. Its use is largely that of a domestic and popu- 

 lar flavor in confectionery and as a perfume. In the 

 form of an aromatic tea it has been a great favorite in 

 domestic medicine, as is true also of its harsher rela- 

 tive, peppermint, the name "peppermint" applying 

 commonly to spearmint. Like its relative, spearmint 

 frequents moist and (preferably) shady bog lands, 

 growing abundantly wild along streams in woodland 

 pastures and meadows in Kentucky during the boy- 

 hood of the writer. 



MEZEREUM (Mezereum) 



Official in all editions of U. S. P., from 1820 to 1910. 

 U. S. P., 1910, directs the bark of Daphne Mezereum, Daphne 

 Gnidium or of Daphne Laureola. 



Daphne Mezereum is an acrid shrub familiar to per- 

 sons conversant with domestic medicine in medieval 

 English times, it being employed by the herbalists and 

 also, somewhat, by the medical profession of that day. 

 It was recognized in Culpeper (175) as an acrid sub- 

 stance, generally applied externally, although it was 

 given internally in dropsy and some other affections, 

 about a dram of the dried bark of the tree being mixed 

 with three parts of water, and taken internally. Hooper 

 (325) hi his Medical Dictionary states that a prevailing 

 method of preparation was to macerate thin slices of 

 the bark of the fresh root in vinegar and apply it ex- 

 ternally. In Stephenson and Churchill's Medical Bot- 



