OF THE COMMON DAISY. 147 



dish, and applied to the head, considerably relieved head- 

 ache* 



Wepfer set great value on a mixture of daisy, cress, and 

 rummularia in the treatment of pneumonia; and Michaelis 

 assures us that he had cured dropsies by the use of the flowers 

 of the daisy cooked as a broth. 



Tournefort, who was very partial to this kind of observa- 

 tions, now repudiated by our botanists, says, that the 

 daisy, taken as a warm drink or a decoction, quickens the 

 blood when congealed by a very severe attack of cold, as 

 happens in pneumonia; it removes obstructions, facilitates 

 the circulation, and gives the fibres an opportunity of re- 

 covering their elasticity, t 



Garidel sums up in the following words the result of his 

 personal observations : " I have frequently remarked that the 

 juice of the daisy acts as a laxative, and even as a purgative ; 

 the decoction does not have that effect so often as Schroeder 

 observes, who says that mothers frequently give the leaves 

 as a gentle aperient to their children. . . . Care should be 

 taken not to administer this remedy indifferently to all 

 pleuretics, nor at any season; for if we give it when the 

 expectoration is easy, we run the risk, by the employment of 

 a laxative at a wrong time, of spoiling everything, and check- 

 ing the expectoration. This I have seen occur in several cases, 

 where the remedy had been administered by a hermit." J 



* Chomel, "Histoire des Pkntes Usuelles," ii. 282. 



t Tournefort, "Histoire des Plantes," i. 103. 



% Garidel, " Histoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs d'Aix," p. 56. 



