CUCKOO-FI-OWER. 235 



subsequent edition of his work he says, " since the iirst edition 

 of this vohune, I have seen sevei'al instances of the good effects of 

 the flowers in convulsive disorders." From the MS. of Dr. T. 

 Robinson*, it also appears that he had found the flowers a use- 

 ful remedy in convulsions ; and Heberden imagined that it 

 assuaged the pain of gout. Greding-f-, who tried it in epilepsy, 

 experienced but one instance of its good effects, and Lysons;]; 

 and Pearson § were not more successful. Michaelis || relates a 

 case of chorea, in which a drachm of the flowers given every 

 six hours, effected a complete cure, so that the paroxysm did 

 not return after the first dose, and in six weeks the patient was 

 free from all traces of the disorder. In Cornwall, the flowering 

 tops have been successfully employed for the cure of epilepsy, 

 for several generations^. In some northern counties they pound 

 the whole plant, and express the juice, of which they give a 

 wine-glassful for a dose. This they esteem an excellent remedy 

 in scorbutic diseases and obstructions of the liver, spleen, or 

 mesenteric glands, also in jaundice, dropsy, and diseases of the 

 urinarv orsans. 



The dose of the dried and powdered flowers is from a drachm 

 to two drachms. 



* Dale, Pharmacologia, p. 204. 



■f Ludwig, Advers. Medico-pract. vol. iii. p. 504. 



* Practical Essays, p. 173. 



§ Synopsis of Mat. Med. p. 465. 



II In Richt. Bibl. vol. v. p. 120. 



f[ Willich, Domestic Encyclopsedia, vol. iii. p. 38. 



s 2 



