146 MISSELTOE. 



cember, carefully dried, and then reduced to powder, which 

 should be kept in well-stopped bottles in a dry place. Kolderer * 

 asserts that he found the aqueous and vinous infusion efficacious 

 in convulsive asthma and in hiccough. Bradley f extols its good 

 effects in hysteria, paralysis, and other nervous affections ; and 

 it has not been without its advocates as a remedy in various 

 fluxes, dysentery, &c, and even in vertigo and apoplexy. Exter- 

 nally it has been recommended by the earliest medical autho- 

 rities as discutient and emollient. The glutinous matter ob- 

 tained from it has been applied with reputed success to resolve 

 tumours, &c, and to assuage the pain of gout. 



The preceding statements, it must be confessed, are far from 

 conclusive, but though exaggerated they have not been proved to 

 be so devoid of truth as to justify the assertion that the plant is 

 inert. Indeed, fresh experiments should be made with the bark, 

 which from its sensible properties appears to be most worthy of 

 trial. It probably deserves to be considered as a slight tonic. 

 The berries are reputed to act as a purgative and sometimes to 

 produce hypercatharsis J, and other excitant effects. 



The dose of the powder is from one to three drachms daily. 

 Two ounces of it infused in a pint of wine, has been recommended 

 in the dose of two or three ounces, three or four times a day. 



* Diss. Viscum planta parasit. p. 12. 



f Mat. Med. p. 115. 



+ Galen Simpl. lib. vi — Paulus ./Egineta, lib. vii. — Nnc. Belg. p. 307- 



