66 BIRCH. 



is much pain and but slight inflammation*. They also make a 

 plaster which is used to promote suppuration, by burning the 

 middle layer of the outer bark, and before it is quite con- 

 sumed, quenching it in water, and then blending it with the 

 resin of the spruce fir, to a proper consistence. 



* Flora Lap. p. 273. Linnaeus remarks, it is curious by what means 

 they could have learned the use of this remedy, since it is used nowhere 

 throughout Sweden. They employ it to such an extent, that their faces 

 and breasts are often covered with hideous cicatrices. 



