300 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



long familiarly known. This quality has not been 

 overlooked even by the poets. Pope says, 



' If your wish be rest, 



Lettuce and cowslip wine Probatum est.' 



It is only very recently, however, that this juice, 

 inspissated, or the extract of lettuce, has found a 

 place among our pharrnaceutic preparations, under 

 the name of Lactucarium. It is supposed to pos- 

 sess, though in an inferior degree, the virtues of 

 opium, without producing the same deleterious ef- 

 fects; and, therefore, it is held that it may be safely 

 administered in cases where the more powerful med- 

 icine is not desirable, or even admissible. Brechin, 

 in the county of Forfar, is among the places where 

 the lettuce is cultivated, and its juice collected in 

 considerable quantity for medical purposes. The 

 plants are grown in a dell, composed of rich soil, 

 and opening to the south. In so favourable a situa- 

 tion they thrive very vigorously, sending up thick 

 and juicy flower-stems. As soon as these have at- 

 tained a considerable size and height, but before the 

 flowers begin to expand, a portion of the top is cut 

 off transversely. This operation is performed when 

 the sun has excited the plants into powerful action. 

 The milky juice quickly exudes from the wound, 

 while the heat of the sun renders it so immediately 

 viscid, that it does not flow down in a fluid state, but 

 concretes around the part whence it issues, forming 

 a brownish scale, about the size of a sixpence. 

 When it has acquired the proper consistence it is 

 removed, and as the inspissated juice closes up the 

 extremities of the divided vessels, it is necessary to 

 cut off another small piece of the stem; this causes 

 the escape of the juice again, and another scale is 

 formed. The same process is repeated as long as 

 the weather is favourable, or the plant will yield any 

 juice. 



