208 PEONY. 



cinal plant. Retzius constitutes the Pceonia mas of the ancients 

 a distinct species, P. corallina. There is probably little differ- 

 ence in the qualities of either species, so that the single-flowered 

 kinds be employed, those with double flowers being much less 

 effective. 



Qualities. — The root is brown externally, white within, 

 diffusing a faint, unpleasant, sub-narcotic odour, and a mucila- 

 ginous, subacrid taste, with some bitterness and astringency. 

 The flowers have a more decided narcotic odour than the root, 

 and an austere sweetish taste, which they yield, together with 

 their colour, both to water and spirit. The seeds have similar 

 properties to the root, and both furnish, when treated with rec- 

 tified spirit, an extract which is bitterish and astringent, while 

 the aqueous extract is nearly inert. The seeds appear to con- 

 tain a portion of oil and fecula ; the tubers of the root also 

 afford starch in the same manner as the potato ; much of their 

 efficacy is lost in drying. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — If implicit confidence 

 might be placed in the accounts handed down to us of the cures 

 effected by this plant, it might truly be called an heroic medi- 

 cine. Galen* speaks of the root as a remedy for epilepsy, being 

 cut into thin slices and suspended about the neck as an amulet. 

 Fernelf, Willis J, and Brendel also consider it a valuable re- 

 medy in this disease, but they recommend it to be given internally 

 twice or thrice a day. Home §, who administered it to two 

 epileptics at the Edinburgh Infirmary, states that one of them 

 received temporary advantage from its use, others have ob- 

 served no benefit to result from it ; but this want of success has 

 been attributed to the employment of the cultivated ornamental 

 variety of the plant. The root, seeds, and flowers have also 

 been commended in various convulsive disorders, and in ver- 

 tigo, night-mare, and obstructions of the viscera. Hippocrates 

 considered the root to exert a special influence upon the uterus, 

 by virtue of its action on the nervous system ; and there is 

 probably some truth in this opinion, although modern experi- 



* De Simpl. lib. vi. p. 807, ed. Rice. 

 ■f De abdit. rer. causis, lib. ii. cap. 17. 

 X Pathol, cerebri, cap. 3, p. 30. sqq. 

 § Clin. Experiments, &c, ed. 2. p. 209. 



