354 GERMANDER. 



Qualities and general Uses. — The physical qualities of 

 this plant have recommended it as useful in tanning, in those 

 countries where it abounds. It is eaten occasionally by sheep 

 and goats, but is refused by other animals. 



The odour of this plant is slightly aromatic, and the taste 

 moderately bitter, diminished by drying. Both water and 

 alcohol take up its active matter ; the former most completely, 

 the watery extract containing most of the bitter principle. 

 The decoction is slightly aromatic and bitter ; it assumes a 

 greenish hue by the addition of syrup of violets, and a solution 

 of sulphate of iron renders it dark and opaque. It contains a 

 small portion of tannin, but its other constituents have not 

 been examined. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Germander has been re- 

 garded as tonic, diuretic, sudorific, incisive, &c., and has been 

 highly commended in enlargements of the spleen, jaundice, 

 obstructions of the viscera, suppressed menses, fevers, dropsy, 

 asthma, and other chronic diseases of the lungs. It has also 

 been employed in the expulsion of worms, and as a remedy in 

 scrofula, scorbutic affections, and hypochondriasis, but more 

 especially in gout. Vesale* mentions that Charles the Fifth was 

 cured of gout by the vinous decoction of this and some other 

 herbs, taken daily for sixty successive days. It was one of the 

 ingredients in the celebrated antarthritic, or Portland j)owder \ . 

 Prosper Alpinus % states that the Egyptians employ it success- 

 fully in the cure of intermittent fevers, by taking a drachm of 

 the powder an hour before the paroxysm; and Chomel § asserts 

 that an infusion of this plant in wine, combined with the lesser 

 centaury, has cured agues over which Peruvian bark had no 



power. 



The infusion of an ounce of this plant in a pint of water, sweetened with 

 honey or capillaire, has been recommended in asthmas || , old coughs, &c. 

 For its tonic eifects, in the diseases already mentioned, it may be employed 

 in decoction with wormwood, lesser centaury, or chamomile. 



* Epist. de China, p. 111.— See also Solenander, Coneid. Med. sec. v. p. 

 475.— Sennerti, Opera, ed. Ludg. t. v. p. 568. 



f Seep. 154. 



+ Med. iEgypt. p. 316. 



§ Plantes Usuelles, torn. ii. p. 139. 



II As a remedy in this complaint, ]Murray (App. Med. torn. ii. p. 51) con- 

 siders it to agree with horehound ; it is also allied to betony. 



