SAGE. 



285 



calyces are more fragrant and balsamic, and consequently more 

 energetic than the leaves. It should be dried quickly in the 

 shade, and preserved in close vessels. 



The use of sage as a culinary herb is very familiar : its bit- 

 terness and aroma enabling the stomach to digest the fat and 

 luscious meats and sauces with which it is associated. It is 

 said, but without much appearance of truth, that the Chinese 

 are as fond of sage as we are of their teas, and that the Dutch 

 once carried on a profitable trade by exchanging one pound of 

 sage leaves for three of tea *. The once credited story of the 

 toad communicating a poisonous quality to this plant, deserves 

 to be ranked with the wildest fables f ; since, however, the 

 leaves, from their glutinous character, are apt to collect dust 

 and insects, it is advisable to cleanse them before they are used. 



Qualities. — Sage has a strong aromatic, peculiar odour, 

 which is most agreeable in the flowers, and a warm, aromatic, 

 bitterish, and sub-astringent taste. These qualities depend on 

 an essential oil which is obtained in distillation with water, and 

 is powerfully fragrant, warm, and pungent, when recent of a 

 fine green colour, turning yellow or brown with age. Rectified 

 spirit appears to take up its aromatic virtues by infusion better 

 than water. The aqueous infusion takes a deep black colour by 

 the addition of sulphate of iron. Hence its chief constituents 

 appear to be volatile oil, camphor, extractive matter, and a 

 little tannin. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — Sage is possessed of 

 bitter and aromatic properties, hence it is stomachic, cordial, 

 nervine, and corroborant. It is capable of raising the tone of 

 the stomach, facilitating digestion, accelerating the general 

 circulation, and of exciting uterine action ; nevertheless these 

 effects are only beneficial in subjects of debility and atony, in 

 persons of leucophlegmatic temperament and exempt from in- 

 flammation. " It may be reckoned amongst the first of 

 nervous remedies ; by which we mean that it is peculiarly 

 adapted to that class of diseases, a very numerous one, known 

 to modern medicine by the name of Neuroses, because they ori- 

 ginate in a derangement of the nervous functions ; of these the 

 principal are apoplexy, paralysis, epilepsy, vertigo, hysteria, 



* Vide Bomare, in Diet. d'Hist. Nat. torn. vi. p. 645, et Boerhaave, in 

 Hist. PI. Hort. L. B., P. i. 234. 



■f See Ambr. Par. p. 690*. Hooke, Mierographia, p. 124. 



