LIME. 91 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. —The flowers of the Lime 

 are supposed to have an anodyne and antispasmodic effect, and by 

 the ancient physicians were esteemed peculiarly cephalic ; hence 

 employed by them in various diseases of the head, as apoplexy, 

 vertigo, and the like. Mizaldus * and Paullinus f especially con- 

 firm the efficacy of the distilled water in the cure of epilepsy. 

 Hoffmann X too, asserts that he knew a case of chronic epilepsy 

 cured by the use of an infusion of the flowers drunk as tea. Such, 

 indeed, was the former exalted anti-epileptic reputation of the 

 Lime-tree, that even epileptic persons sitting under its shade, were 

 reported to be cured. That the flowers are manifestly useful in 

 this terrible disease, numerous writers have confirmed. § Hoffmann 

 further adds, that the distilled water is good for all disorders attended 

 with pain or spasms. French physicians are much in the habit of 

 prescribing a decoction or infusion of these flowers in all nervous 

 affections, and also in that kind of fever which succeeds to violent 

 injury or to surgical operations. In these cases it appears to soothe 

 and calm the irritation excited, and produces perspiration and sleep. 

 The same may likewise be employed in hysteria, asthma, trouble- 

 some coughs, couvulsions, and for the abdominal spasms of hypo- 

 chondriacs. ^ 



All the plant, but especially the inner bark, coptains a soft muci- 

 lage, void of all acrimony, which renders it, when macerated in 

 water, an excellent application to burns and scalds, and for miti- 

 gating the pain of gouty and inflammatory swellings. The leaves 

 reduced to ashes, and taken in doses of half a drachm, have been 

 found to appease ardor urinee. 



INFUSION OF LIME FLOWERS. 



Take of Lime flowers two drachms ; 



Liquorice root two drachms ; 



Boiling water a pint and a half. 



Infuse for a quarter of an hour. A pleasant mucilaginous drink, to be 

 taken warm, in doses of from one to three ounces. 



* Cent. 9, Mem. Aphor. 25. 



f Obs. 41, Cent. 1. 



+ Opusc. Med. p. 227. 



§ " The juice, obtained by tapping the tree near the roots, in the spring, 

 has obtained a great reputation for the cure of epilepsy, and we conceive 

 it to be well worth the trial."— Waller ; Brit. Herb. p. 224. 



