360 GOLDEN-ROD. 



slightly aromatic ; these qualities it yields both to water and 

 alcohol. The watery infusion is rather aromatic, herbaceous, 

 and bitterish to the taste, and of a reddish hue, which is ren- 

 dered dark brown by the addition of sulphate of iron, and does 

 not redden litmus paper. The inspissated spirituous extract is 

 stronger than the aqueous. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses.— This plant was first 

 brought into notice by Arnoldus de Villa Nova *, who highly ex- 

 tolled it as a remedy for stone in the bladder, and for its vul- 

 nerary qualitiesf . Barclaius, Solenander, Piso, and others, relate 

 instances of its good effects in gravel and other diseases of the 

 urinary organs, given either in powder or infusion j. Lischwitz ^ 

 asserts that an ulcer of the urethra was completely cured by 

 means of this remedy ; and Ettmuller considered it very useful 

 in ulcers and wounds of the bladder. Hoffmann || recommends 

 it in hectic fever, incipient dropsy, and obstructions of the 

 viscera. Although quite neglected in the present day it is cer- 

 tainly not inert as a medicine, and may be found useful in cases 

 where astringents are admissible, as in chronic diarrhoeas, dy- 

 senteries ; and externally in ulcers of the mouth and throat, 

 putrid gums, &c. It may be taken in infusion or decoction, 

 at pleasure ; an extract and a tincture may also be prepared 

 from it. 



* Opera, p. 1266. 



t Gerard had a very great opinion of it as an application to bleeding 

 Avounds and ulcers, and he gives the following apposite account of its disuse : 

 " I haue known the dry herbe Avhich came from beyond the sea sold in 

 Bucklersbury for halfe a crowne an ounce. But since it was found in 

 Hampstead wood, euen as it were at our townes end, no man will giue 

 halfe a crowne for an hundred weight of it ; which plainely setteth forth 

 our inconstancie and sudden mutabilitie, esteeming no longer of anything 

 how pretious soeuer it be, than whilest it is strange and vare."— Herbal, 

 p. 430. 



■^ Murray, App. Med. vol. i. p. 258. 



§ Diss, de Virg. Aureis, p. 87. 



11 Med. Off. p. 238. 



