11- BLCKTHORN. 



mended for carrying oft* serum in dropsies of every kind, and 

 as a purgative in cachectic and hypochondriacal diseases, scro- 

 fula, chronic diseases of the skin, and after the suppression of 

 any habitual evacuation. It has been found useful in gout, for 

 which disease, as well as dropsy, it was frequently prescribed 

 by Sydenham. This acute physician, however, did not over- 

 look the thirst and dryness of the throat produced by it ; and 

 therefore ordered a basin of soup to be taken immediately after 

 it to obviate these effects. It i^ directed by the London Phar- 

 macopoeia to be prepared as follows, the aromatics being added 

 to prevent its griping effects. 



Syrup of Buckthorn. 



Take of Fresh juice of Buckthorn berries, four pints ; 

 Ginger root sliced, 



Pimento berries bruised, of each half an ounce; 

 Refined sugar, three pounds and a half. 



Set apart the juice for three days, that the faeces may suhside, and strain 

 it : to a pint of the strained juice, add the ginger root and pimento, then 

 macerate by a gentle heat for four hours and strain. Boil the remainder 

 of the juice down to a pint and half, then mix the two liquors, and add the 

 sugar in the manner directed for making syrups. 



The dose is from four drachms to an ounce, drinking freely of gruel, or 

 other tepid fluids, during its operation. 



The medical properties of the bark of this shrub do not ap- 

 pear to have been sufficiently investigated, if we may rely on the 

 authority of Dr. Kolb, of Erlang, who recommends it as an 

 efficacious remedy, in every respect superior to the berries. 

 He attributes to it tonic, gently astringent, and antiseptic pro- 

 perties, and recommends a decoction of it in powder, combined 

 with honey, gum arable, or some other mucilage, as beneficial 

 in intermittent and other fevers, and in general debility after 

 chronic diseases. He also extols the decoction of the bark as 

 of great service in reducing inveterate inflammation of the 

 eyes, and in some obstinate cutaneous diseases. Both the com- 

 mon and the Alder Buckthorn are frequently employed in ve- 

 terinary practice as brisk purgatives for cattle. The berries 

 of the latter are thought to be inferior to those of the former, 

 for which they are sometimes substituted, but the fraud may 

 be discovered by opening the berry, which in the common 

 Buckthorn contains /owr seeds, in the Alder Buckthorn only two. 



