18 MEDICINAL USES OF HOPS. 



CHAPTEK II. 



MEDICINAL USES OF HOPS. 



HOPS are used medicinally for their stomachic and tonic 

 properties. They are also to some extent suporific, especially 

 the odorous vapours from them ; hence a pillow stuffed with 

 hops is occasionally employed as an agreeable sedative to 

 induce sleep, and was obtained for George III. when a 

 lunatic. The extract has been found to allay pain ; but 

 after all, it is a better adjunct to beer than as a medicine. 

 The infusion and tincture act as pleasant aromatic tonics, 

 but Pereira doubts the existence of the narcotic effects which 

 have been ascribed to hops. 



He, however, states that the medicinal properties of hops 

 are numerous. Both infusion and tincture of hops are mild 

 and agreeable aromatic tonics. They sometimes manifest 

 diuretic, or when the skin is kept warm, sudorific qualities. 

 Their sedative, soporific, and anodyne properties are, however, 

 very uncertain. Hop's have been given internally to relieve 

 restlessness consequent upon exhaustion or fatigue, to induce 

 sleep in the wakefulness of mania and other maladies ; to 

 calm nervous irritation, and to relieve pain in gout and 

 rheumatism. They have also been applied topically in the 

 form of a fomentation or poultice, as a resolvent or discu- 

 tient in painful swellings or tumours. 



As the narcotic properties are due to the volatile oil, hops 



