312 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



in crowded cities from partaking of the 

 sweets of nature; but we would recommend 

 the old practice of laying clean linen in la- 

 vender, in preference to throwing the extract 

 of it on dirty clothes. 



Lavender is in a very eminent degree ce- 

 phalic and nervine, and may be safely em- 

 ployed to sweeten the air of sick rooms, 

 when the state of the patient, or the atmo- 

 sphere, will not admit of purer circulation. 

 It is the chief of all the cephalic plants, be- 

 ing very comfortable and reviving, under 

 faintings and languishments of the brain and 

 heart; whence it is very proper in lethargies, 

 apoplexy, palsy, and epilepsy. Lavender, 

 given in a phrensy proceeding from an in- 

 flammation, infallibly destroys the patient ; 

 but it is good for vertiginous old persons, 

 and distempers owing to dulness, and want 

 of spirits.* 



The spirit of lavender is still esteemed in 

 palsies, vertigoes, lethargies, tremours, &c. 

 The oil is particularly celebrated for destroy- 

 ing the pediculi mguinales, and other cuta- 

 neous insects. Geoffroy says, if soft spungy 

 paper, dipped in the oil, be applied at night 



# Dr. R. James. 



