ACORN. 5 



In medicine, a decoction of acorns is reputed good 

 against dysenteries and colics. Pliny states, that acorns 

 beaten to powder, and mixed with hog's-lard and salt, 

 heal all hard swellings, and cancerous ulcers ; and when 

 reduced into a liniment, and applied, stay the haemorr- 

 hage. 



Every part of the oak is styptic, binding, and useful 

 in all kinds of fluxes and bleedings, either inwardly or 

 outwardly ; the bark is frequently used in gargarisms, for 

 the relaxation of the uvula, and for sore mouths and 

 throats. An extract made from the bark is said by some 

 to be equal to the Peruvian bark. 



Dr. Cullen frequently employed the decoction with 

 success in slight tumefactions of the mucous membrane 

 of the fauces, in prolapsus uvulae, and cynanche tonsil- 

 laris, to which some persons are liable upon the least ex- 

 posure to cold : in many cases this decoction, applied 

 early, has appeared useful in preventing these disor- 

 ders, but in the improved state of medicine it is little 

 employed although there is no doubt that oak bark 

 will cure intermittents, both alone and joined with ca- 

 momile flowers. 



The gall nuts of the oak, are of many kinds, but they 

 have all the same medicinal virtue. We learn from Pliny 

 that they were used by the Romans to colour their hair 

 black. Galls appear to be the most powerful of the vege- 

 table astringents, striking a deep black when mixed with a 

 solution of green vitriol, and are therefore preferred to 

 every other substance for the purpose of making ink. As a 

 medicine they possess a greater degree of astringent and 

 styptic power than the bark, and have therefore an ad- 

 vantage over it, particularly for external use. 



Two sorts of galls are distinguished in the shops, those 

 brought from Aleppo, and therefore called Aleppo nuts, 



