BROOM. 95 



same purposes as flax. The branches have also been used for 

 tanning leather, for thatching cottages and ricks, to be made 

 into besoms, and as a winter food for sheep. The old wood 

 furnishes a beautiful material for veneering. 



The leaves and stalks of the common Broom have a nauseous 

 and bitter taste, which they give out by infusion, both to water 

 and rectified spirit ; the latter infusion is of a dark green, and the 

 former of a brownish colour. An extract prepared from the 

 above possesses all the virtues of the plant. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Broom tops have been 

 esteemed for a long period as cathartic and diuretic ; they are 

 most celebrated for the latter property. Dr. Mead* relates a 

 case of dropsy, of which, after every other remedy had been tried 

 in vain, the patient was cured by taking every morning and 

 evening half a pint of a decoction of recent Broom-tops, with a 

 spoonful of whole mustard. Dr. Cullen, speaking of this plant, 

 says, " I found it first in use among our common people, but I 

 have since prescribed it to some of my patients in the manner 

 following : I order half an ounce of fresh Broom-tops to be 

 boiled in a pint of water, till one half of this is consumed, and 

 of this decoction I give two table-spoonfuls every hour, till it 

 operates by stool, or the whole is taken. It seldom fails to 

 operate both by stool and urine, and by repeated exhibition, 

 every day, or every second day, some dropsies have been cured." 



Sydenham, as well as many other eminent writers, particularly 

 commend the alkaline salt obtained by burning the plant and 

 passing water through the ashes, as a specific in dropsy. It 

 may be objected, that this is no other than carbonate of potash, 

 which may be obtained from the ashes of any other vegetable. 

 It is true, that after repeated purifications, nothing but carbonate 

 of potash remains, diflPering in no respect from that obtained 

 from other vegetables ; but this very purification may disperse 

 the most valuable part, that is, the esssential oil of the plant, 

 in which its medical virtue chiefly consists. For this reason the 

 plant should be reduced to ashes by slow combustion in an iron 

 pot, and a ley formed by passing water through these ashes 

 which will dissolve the salt ; this should be afterwards filtered 

 through flannel, and then evaporated till the salt can crystallize 



• Monita et Praecepta medica, p. 138. 



