REST-HARROW. 251 



cele. Matthiolus* asserts that he lias known a cure of sarco- 

 cele effected by the persevering use of the powdered root. 

 Pfisterusf relates that the issue of his experience of it was, 

 1st, that it does not always act as a diuretic ; 2dly, that in some 

 patients it induced anorexia and cardialgia ; 3dly, that he had 

 never observed it to be efficacious in genuine sarcocele. Hence 

 it has been supposed that the cases adduced by Matthiolus, 

 Ettmuller, and others were in fact hydrocele, which had been 

 mistaken for sarcocele. The testimony of the learned Ber- 

 gius X as to the remedial efficacy of this plant in the above-men- 

 tioned diseases is valuable : he says, " I have often known a 

 decoction of the root of Ononis afford astonishing relief in is- 

 churia from calculus of the bladder, when other remedies had 

 proved abortive. I have seen a drachm of the root taken* 

 twice a day for some weeks, effect a notable diminution, and 

 at length the complete resolution of sarcocele in an aged indi- 

 vidual. Acrel has observed the same in three cases of hydro- 

 sarcocele ; in one of these, the tumour, although sub-opaque, 

 was more analogous to hydrocele." Plenck § and Schneider || 

 give their testimony to the same effect. Although modern 

 surgeons may place but little faith in these statements, such a 

 remedy at least deserves trial prior to the use of the trochar, &c. 



Further, Meyer^f and Gilibert recommend the Rest-harrow 

 in visceral and glandular obstructions, the atrophy and ca- 

 chexia of infants, and in chlorosis. The distilled water was 

 formerly employed against internal haemorrhages ; the decoc- 

 tion has been used with success, with the addition of a little 

 vinegar, as a gargle in looseness of the gums, scorbutic ulcers, 

 and tooth-ache. In Hungary they use a vinous decoction of 

 the plant, to which is added an onion and a few cloves, as a 

 fomentation to the head, in the delirium of malignant fever. 



The root, or what is preferable, merely its bark is given 

 powdered, in the dose of a drachm, or in that of three or four 

 drachms in the form of decoction to a pint of water, or di- 



* Comment, p. 560. 



f De Hydrosarcole, § 50. 



£ Mat. Med. torn. ii. p. 600. 



§ Pharmacol, chirurg. p. 352. 



|| Chirurgische Geschichte, vol. x. 



% Vide Richt. Bibl. vol. viii. p. 275. 



a % 



