MISSELTOE. 



145 



bitterish, roughish, and subsaline ; tlie spirituous extracts, in 

 quantity smaller than the aqueous, are in taste stronger, nau- 

 seous, bitterish, and sub-austere." * The berries afford a large 

 quantity of glutinous, sweetish mucilage like caoutchouc, inso- 

 luble in water and alcohol. A similar mucilage resides in the 

 bark f , which appears also to contain an astringent principle, 

 although infusions of it are scarcely affected by sulphate of iron. 

 Medicinal Properties and Uses. — Hippocrates, Dioscorides 

 and Galen highly extol the virtues of Misseltoe, or at least 

 the glue obtained from it, as an external remedy, but neither 

 of them mentions its internal employment except Hippocrates J, 

 who recommends it in diseases of the spleen. At the commence- 

 ment of the 14th century § we find the Misseltoe of the oak spoken 

 of in Gordon's Lilium Medicince as a remedy for epilepsy. Su- 

 perior efficacy was for many ages attributed to it when obtained 

 from the oak; — an opinion doubtless originating in the high 

 value attached to it as a sacred plant in the days of Druidical 

 superstition. Matthiolus and Paracelsus also laud its effects 

 in epilepsy, and Kolderer, Cartheuser, Colbatch, Loseke, Van 

 Swieten, &c, state that they found it beneficial not only in this 

 redoubtable disease, but in other convulsive affections. Col- 

 batch || affirms that a case of chorea yielded to its persevering 

 employment, and that it is a specific in epilepsy; in which disease 

 he gave it in the dose of a drachm in powder two or three times 

 a-day, sometimes accompanied with an infusion of the plant. He 

 adds that its anti-epileptic powers are greatly increased by the 

 addition of assafcetida ^f . He lays great stress upon the manner 

 in which it is prepared, recommending it to be gathered in De- 



* Lewis Mat. Med. p. 575. 



f Birdlime is obtained from the recent bark by bruising it thoroughly, 

 and then forming it into small lumps which are repeatedly washed in pure 

 water, and well squeezed between the fingers, that the filamentous part may 

 be separated from the glue. It may also be procured in the same manner as 

 from Holly (see vol. ii. p. 4). 



$ Linden, ii. p. 238. 



$ At this period it was not only taken as a medicine, but hung round the 

 neck as an amulet against poison, witchcraft, and possession of the devil. 



|| Dissertation concerning Misseltoe, 1 ed. 3. London, 1723, p. 22. 



f Tissot and Hufeland combined it with valerian. 



VOL. II. L 



