CROWFOOT. 231 



forated being placed over it ; where the cuticle is thin and very 

 sensible, it must be removed in two hours. From neglect 

 of these precautions he had known extensive inflammation to 

 arise and spread over a great part of the face, neck, and breast. 

 Thus appliedj it has been used for the cure of chronic head- 

 ache, hemicrania*, rheumatism of the hip-joint, gout, and other 

 fixed pains -f-. In intermittent fevers, however, it has been more 

 particularly lauded. With this view it is applied in the form 

 of a cataplasm over the region of the stomach, or to the wrists. 

 One of the most remarkable cases is that related by Sennert J, 

 of an obstinate quartan fever, accompanied with great pain in 

 the shoulders, which disappeared by the application of the 

 meadow crowfoot to the wrists^ before the access. Van 

 Swieten§ speaks of a man who several times warded off an 

 intermittent by merely applying the plant reduced to a pulp, 

 upon the fingers. To put us on our guard, Murray]! cites a case 

 of a child in whom the improper use of the plant brought on 

 dropsy of the abdomen, hydrocele, and a deep ulcer of the 

 wrist, which injured the tendons of the flexor muscles of the 

 fingers. 



The internal use of the plant is much less common, prac- 

 titioners being deterred, and very justly so, by its corrosive and 

 deleterious character. It has however been employed in pa- 

 ralysis, commencing with very small doses, gradually augmented 

 for fear of accident. Dr. Withering states that " the distilled 

 water of the Lesser Spear-wort (^Ranunculus Flammida) is an 

 excellent emetic, and in cases of poison being swallowed, or 

 other circumstances occurring in which it is desirable to make 

 the patient vomit instantaneously, it is preferable to any other 

 medicine, as it does not excite those painful contractions of the 

 stomach which white vitriol sometimes does." If this be correct 

 there is no reason why the distilled water of the Ranuncxdus 

 acris should not be used for the same purpose. 



* Pain of one half of the head. 



f Vide Baglivi Opera p. 113. Storck Ann. Med. ii. 123. 



J Opera, torn. i. p. 263. 



§ Comment, torn. ii. p. 571. 



II Appar. Med. torn. iii. p. 81. 



