DANDELION. 231 



long uninjured. The recent root, full grown and procured in 

 autumn, should alone be employed. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Although this plant can- 

 not be fully identified with the descriptions by which it is sup- 

 posed to be indicated in the earliest medico-botanical works, 

 it is distinctly signalized by later authors. Avicenna*, in his 

 chapter " De cura oppilationum hepatis," mentions it under the 

 name of taraxacon. Tragus speaks of its virtues in burning 

 fevers, and Gerard recommends it in jaundice, in which dis- 

 ease Van Swieten -f- found it very beneficial, either in the form 

 of a decoction or the juice by itself, or mixed with whey- 

 Ettmuller prescribed it in chronic maladies supervening to 

 obstructions of the liver and mesenteric glands, in intermittents, 

 and in low putrid fevers. He also applied the bruised leaves 

 externally, in the form of a poultice, to the back of the neck, 

 in affections of the eyes. It excites small pustules and blisters ; 

 and he affirms that it removes specks from the eyes, and in- 

 flammation. He employed it in the same manner for head- 

 aches. He adds, the juice applied on linen is efficacious against 

 all kinds of sores and excoriations. Parkinson writes " who so 

 is macilent, drawing towards a consumption, or ready to fall into 

 a cachexy, by the use hereof for some time together, shall find 

 a wonderful help." Fuller states that he gave the expressed 

 juice in many obstinate scorbutic and leprous affections of the 

 skin, with the best effects ;;|;. Delius § highly commended tlie 

 wine or fermented decoction of Dandelion in hectic fevers, dropsy 

 of the chest, asthma, retention of urine, and in inflammation of 

 the eyes. Bergius IJ found a decoction of the root in whey or 

 broth extremely useful in diseases of the liver. More recently Dr. 

 Pemberton ^ observes that he has seen great advantage result from 

 using the extract in chronic inflammation and incipient scirrhus of 

 the liver, and in chronic derangement of the stomach. Dr. W. 

 Philip considers it well adapted for cases in which bile is defi- 



• Op. cit. vol. i. p. 764. 

 t Comment, torn. iii. p. 102. 



$ See also Leidenfrost, Dissert, de succis herb. rec. p. 27; Febure Chemie, 

 vol. ii. p. 408. 



§ Dissertatio de Taraxaco, p. 31. 



jl Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 649. 



% Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera, p. 42. 



T ^ 



