ELECAMPANE. 277 



-" cum rapula pleniis 



Atqiie acidas mavult imilas." — Sat. 2. /. 44. 



Qualities and general Uses. — Elecampane is sometimes 

 cultivated for the sake of its flowers, but it is not of any utility 

 in pastures ; goats and horses, however, sometimes eat it in the 

 absence of better food. The roots, when bruised and macerated 

 in wine with balls of ashes and whortle-berries, will dye stuffs 

 of a blue colour. 



The recent root exhales a strong, penetrating odour. When 

 dried, the smell is aromatic yet slightly fetid, and on chewing 

 it, the taste is at first disagreeable and glutinous, then bitterish, 

 hot, and pungent. Both alcohol and water extract its virtues, 

 the former most completely. By chemical analysis, the root 

 affords a volatile oil which easily concretes, extractive matter, 

 resin, vegetable albumen, acetic acid, and principally a kind of 

 greyish, odorous fsecula, discovered by M. Rose*, and named 

 by Dr. Thomson, Inulhi^. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The root of Elecampane 

 was much esteemed by our ancestors as a valuable drug. 

 Hippocrates and Galen make favourable mention of it. Dios- 

 corides speaks of its efficacy in sciatic affections. It has been 

 strongly recommended in pectoral affections J, particularly in 

 coughs and asthmas ; and besides promoting expectoration, it 

 is also said to act as a sudorific and diuretic. Its diuretic 

 properties, however, Cullen § considers as trifling, and could 

 not discover that it possessed any expectorant virtues. It 

 is reputed a good remedy in complaints of the stomach 

 arising from acidity ; hence its value in dyspepsia and those 

 colics so frequently originating in the acidity of that organ. 

 It is found a powerful remedy in that kind of imperfect 

 paralysis to which the ancients gave the name of Parcesis, in 



* Annales de chimie, torn. Ixxvi. p. 98. 



■f This substance is characterised by its forming a resinous matter when 

 submitted to the action of acids, a phenomenon which takes place with no 

 other faecula. It yields on distillation in a retort all the products furnished 

 by gum. Dissolved in hot water it renders the liquid mucilaginous, and 

 precipitates on cooling in the form of a white powder. Inulin may be 

 obtained by boiling the root in four times its weight of water and leaving 

 the liquid in repose. 



+ Dehne in Crell's Chem. Jonrn. 



% IMat. Med. vol. ii. p. 459. 



