86 A SOVEREIGN REMEDY. 



formerly attributed to it, we ought to bow to the ground 

 every time we encounter it. 



Listen to our authorities even if you do not respect them. 



Cassalpin asserts that the decoction or juice of the night- 

 shade is a sovereign remedy for complaints of the stomach 

 and the bladder, and regards nightshade-water, mixed with 

 an equal quantity of absinthe-water, as one of the best 

 sudorifics. 



Tragus, a physician and botanist like Caesalpin, recom- 

 mends the juice of the nightshade as anti-choleraic, as well 

 as efficacious in inflammation of the liver and stomach. 

 And yet, at the same time, he grows emphatic in reference 

 to its poisonous properties. "Do not," he says, "employ 

 this herb immoderately, lest it should happen to you as, 

 in 1541, I saw it happen to an inhabitant of Erbach, near 

 Hohenburg. After having eaten a few nightshade-berries, he 

 was seized, on the following day, by a furious monomania, 

 which led his neighbours to believe him possessed of a 

 devil. After having uselessly employed every kind of 

 exorcism, they sent for me. I made my patient swallow 

 some very strong wine; he fell into a profound slumber; 

 and, when he awoke, was cured." * 



Withering affirms that a couple of grains of the dried leaves 

 will act as a powerful sudorific, and that they have also been 

 found useful in some cutaneous disorders. 



Here is another authority, before whom naturalists are 

 .accustomed to give way. We make use of the Solarium 

 * Tragus, " Historia Stirpium" (ed. 1552). 



