122 BURDOCK. 



was then added, and this mixture was taken every n)orning, in 

 bed, for four or five weeks. The same author asserts its utility 

 in promoting the lochial discharge. 



Externally, the leaves of the Burdock have been found ex- 

 tremely resolutive as an application to indolent tumours, and 

 have been used with success by empirics to certain swellings 

 of the knee joint, which had excited the greatest alarm. The 

 manner in which it has usually been applied by many of these 

 characters, has been by boiling the leaves in urine and bran, and 

 forming them into a poultice to be applied to the part morning 

 and evening. This is unquestionably a powerful, though not 

 very elegant application ; but the case of white swelling of the 

 knee joint will warrant a little deviation from the ordinary form 

 of prescription. Chomel * speaks very highly of it, applied as 

 above. 



The bruised leaves, or the rasped root, are found an ex- 

 cellent application to foul sloughing ulcers, and also to certain 

 obstinate and foul cutaneous eruptions. Etmuller commends 

 the application of them hot, to parts affected with the gout, 

 and to bruises where there is much extravasation of blood. 



Hufeland-j- recommends the juice of the leaves as an appli- 

 cation to ulcers. " M. Percy greatly lauds a species o^ nutritum, 

 prepared with two ounces of the juice of the leaves, and the 

 same quantity of oil, which are to be triturated and agitated in 

 the cold, with several balls of lead, in a tin vessel : a green 

 pomade is the result, containing a little oxide of lead, and 

 also partaking of the properties of the juice. The majority of 

 atonic ulcers of the legs, in general so stubborn, are soon healed 

 by the application of a pledget dipped in this ointment, and 

 above it a leaf of the Burdock ; it mollifies their callous edo-es, 

 and promotes suppuration ; it has also been applied with suc- 

 cess to open scrofulous tumours, and even to cancers, of which 

 it hinders the progress and mitigates the pain." \ 



Decoctions of the Burdock root, says Withering, are esteemed 

 by judicious physicians as equal, if not superior, to sarsaparilla. 

 Dr. Woodville ^ says, " as a diuretic, we have known it succeed 



* Histoire abregee des Plant es Usuelles, t. i. p. 318. 

 t Stirp. Helv. n. 181. 



* Dictionaire des Sciences Med. toui. iii. p. 13. 

 § .Medical Botany, vol. i, p 42. 



