sloe. 297 



bitterish taste which prevails throughout the natural family to which the 

 plant belongs, and which is owing to the presence of a volatile oil combined 

 probably with a minute portion of prussic acid. The juice of the pulp is 

 so viscid that it can scarcely be expressed without the aid of water. The 

 expressed juice of the unripe fruit, inspissated by a gentle heat to dryness, 

 is called German Acacia, and has been usually sold in the shops for the 

 Egyptian acacia, from which it differs in being harder, heavier, darker co- 

 loured, of a sharper taste, and more especially in imparting its astringency 

 in a great measure to rectified spirit as well as water. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The Sloe, though not al- 

 lowed a place in the British, is nevertheless admitted into seve- 

 ral continental pharmacopoeias. The parts used are the flowers, 

 fruit, bark, and root. The flowers are slightly laxative, anthel- 

 mintic, and anti-nephritic. Bauhin * and Hoffmann speak of 

 them, infused in water, or whey, weak wine, or beer, as a popular 

 laxative; and Lewis -f considers the infusion or syrup to be 

 especially calculated for children. The fruit was employed for 

 its styptic property in the time of Dioscorides J, and as its as- 

 tringency is modified by a refrigerant quality, it may be used in 

 diarrhoeas and haemorrhages, and in the form of gargles to 

 catarrhal affections of the uvula, tonsils, and gums. Dr. Cul- 

 len § says he has often found sloes to constitute an agreeable 

 and useful astringent. According to Coste, Willemet, and Ne- 

 belius ||, the bark is decidedly febrifuge, and from experiments 

 made by them, proved effective in the cure of intermittents : 

 the doses in which the powder was exhibited varied from one 

 to two drachms. An extract of the bark may be employed as 

 a substitute for those made from the Peruvian barks. The 

 leaves possess similar properties to the bark, but in a less 

 degree. Lastly, the root, or rather bark of the root, was ad- 

 vised in asthma IT, and Kramer** relates a case, the result of 

 one among other trials, in which it caused the expulsion of an 



* Bauhin, Hist. PI. torn. i. p. 196. Fr. Hoffmann, Diss, de praestantia 

 remed. domest. sect. 26. 



f Lewis, Mat. Med. p. 468. 



% Mat. Med. lib. i. cap. 173. 



§ Cullen, Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 41. 



l| Coste et Willemet, Essais sur quelques plantes indigenes, p. 68. Ne- 

 belius in Nat. Cur. vol. v. obs. 116. p. 395, &c. 



^j Trumpf. in Commerc Nor. 1741, p. 226. 



** Kramer in Commerc. Nor. 1735, p. 44. 



