HYSSOP. 275 



smell : therefore, the tops and blossoms are 

 sometimes reduced to powder, and used with 

 cold salad herbs, having a comforting and 

 strengthening virtue; they are salutary against 

 melancholy and phlegm. Besides the gene- 

 ral virtues of aromatics, hyssop is greatly 

 recommended in humoral asthmas, coughs, 

 and other disorders of the breast and lungs; 

 and is said to promote expectoration. The 

 leaves infused in the manner of tea and 

 sweetened with sugar or honey, have been 

 found good in diseases of the breast and 

 lungs, being of a detergent, attenuant, ex- 

 pectorant, and corroborant quality. 



This exotic may be raised either by seed 

 or cuttings. It thrives best in a poor dry 

 soil, and will also bear the severities of win- 

 ter much better in such soil, than where its 

 pores are filled with moisture in a richer 

 soil. 



The hedge hyssop is said to be good in 

 dropsical cases, but it is so powerful a medi- 

 cine, and its operations are so violent, that it 

 can only be given to persons of robust consti- 

 tutions, although it is rendered more mild by 

 being boiled in milk. 



M. Geoffroy, a French physician, who 

 studied in England about the end of the 17Ui 



VOL. I. T 



