31 HORSE-TAIL. 



these plants contains abundance of silex or flint, which renders 

 them very suitable for polishing' hard wood, ivory, brass, &c. E. 

 hyemale, often called Dutch-rushes, is much employed for these 

 purposes by artisans, and was formerly used to scour and clean 

 pewter dishes and plates, milk-pails, and other culinary articles. 

 This species has been recommended as useful for tanning or dress- 

 ing" leather. It is a troublesome weed to farmers, especially in 

 ground which has been reclaimed from rivers, and in fields where 

 water stagnates in winter. It is seldom touched by animals, except 

 the goat ; and when cows have been driven by hunger to feed 

 upon it, injurious consequences are said to have ensued, viz., 

 diarrhoea, bloody urine, and abortion.* 



It is nearly inodorous, and has a slightly saline, herbaceous, and 

 styptic taste, producing in the mouth a sensation of dryness. 

 Water extracts the whole of its sensible qualities. The aqueous 

 infusion reddens but very slightly litmus paper, and is not much 

 affected by sulphate of iron ; hence its astringent powers would 

 appear to be very feeble, and its reputed medicinal effects must be 

 attributed to some saline ingredients, of which we have no analysis. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — This plant is said to be 

 astringent and vulnerary,t and an abundance of authorities are 

 given by BauhinJ of its wonderful powers in curing or mitigating 

 various diseases ; the greater number, in all probability, the re- 

 cords of imaginary results. In the character of an astringent, it 

 has been much used in dysentery, spitting of blood, ulcers of the 

 lungs, phthisis, malignant fevers, uterine and other haemorrhages, 

 bloody urine, in ulcerations and wounds of the bladder, kidneys, 

 and other intestines. Simon Pauli§ relates a very remarkable 

 history of a girl, wounded accidentally in the bladder by a pointed 

 knife, where the urine was discharged by the wound, and who re- 



* See Linn. Flor. Suec. p. 367.— J. H. Schulze in Act. Nat. Cur. vol. i. 

 p. 521.— Halier; Hist. Stirp. Helv. n. 1677. 



t Gerard thus describes its vulnerary "properties, in his peculiar 

 way : - " Dioscorides saith, that Horse-tail, being stamped and laid to, 

 doth perfectly cure wounds ; yea, although the sinues be cut asunder, as 

 Galen add^th. It is of so great and singular virtue in healing wounds, as 

 that it is thought and reported for truth, to cure wounds of the blad- 

 der and other bowels, and helpeth ruptures and burstings."— Herbal, p. 

 1116. 



* Theat. Col. 252, 3, 4. 



§ S. Pauli, in Flora Danica. 



