CARAWAY. 137 



have been ranked ainongst the greater warm seeds — viz. anise, 

 fennel, caraway, cummin ; and recommended in flatulencies, 

 cohc, dyspepsia, and other symptoms attending hysterical and 

 hypochondriacal disorders. 



In jiharmacy they enter into many infusions and decoctions, 

 particularly the infusion of senna, and any preparation of this 

 kind, whether purgative, tonic, or stomachic, wherein warmth 

 may be desirable, or griping of the bowels apprehended. 

 Geoffroy * recommends a scruple of the seeds in powder, with 

 two drachms of sugar in a glass of good wine, in cases of flatu- 

 lent colic. Etmuller commends them in similar disorders, and 

 as efficacious in promoting the secretion of milk. Linnaeus -{■ 

 considers them as a remedy not to be despised in tertian 

 agues. 



A decoction of the root is sometimes given in clysters, 

 combined with astringents, or purgatives, as the case may 

 require. 



The essential oil has been recommended in pains of the sto- 

 mach, heart-burn, sickness, &c., in the dose of from four to 

 tight or ten drops on a lump of sugar, or in any kind of 

 drink. 



Both the seeds and the oil are employed externally in windy 

 colics, and in some deep-seated pains, as ear-ache and toothache. 

 A homely remedy is used by the country people of some dis- 

 tricts in the first mentioned disease, which they find extremely 

 eflRcacious. They pound a hot loaf, fresh from the oven, with 

 a good handful or two of the seeds, and wetting the whole with 

 brandy, or some other spirit, apply it to the part affected. An 

 ounce of the seeds, infused in a pint of water, forms a carmina- 

 tive potion, which has been recoinmended for infants instead of 

 the oil of caraway usually given by nurses. 



The London Pliarmacopoeia directs a spirit to be thus made 

 from the seeds : 



SPIRIT OF CARAWAY. 

 Take of Caraway Seeds, bruised, a pound and a half ; 



• Mat. 3Ied. iii. p. 266. 

 •|- Flora Suecica, p. 95. 



