302 SORREL. 



composed of binoxalate of potass and tartaric acid. The seeds are mode- 

 rately astringent, without bitterness or acidity ; they communicate a red- 

 dish colour to water by infusion, which takes a brownish hue with sulphate 

 of iron. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The foliage of Sorrel has 

 been celebrated for its refrigerating and diuretic properties from 

 the earliest ages ; it serves to lessen the general circulation, 

 tends to promote cutaneous transpiration, and acts beneficially 

 upon the other secretions. It is admissible in the treatment of 

 most fevers, continued or intermittent, and above all, in those 

 which are of a typhoid type ; as also in malignant diseases. 

 Wherever a high degree of tendency to putrescence exists in 

 the body, this remedy will be found to possess considerable 

 antiseptic power. In engorgements of the liver, bilious fevers, 

 and vomiting, putrid eructations, heart-burn, and in renal or 

 urinary obstructions, it forms a valuable auxiliary to other 

 measures. In some eruptions of the skin it has also been con- 

 sidered useful, either eaten plentifully in salads, or taken me- 

 dicinally. Like many other remedies which act by augment- 

 ing the quantity of urine, this herb has been essayed in ascites* 

 and in calculi f , but its reputation in either case has never been 

 established. It is in the cure of scurvy that the Sorrel bears 

 the palm, whether used alone or in combination with other anti- 

 scorbutics, as is amply testified in the writings of Bartholinus J, 

 Boerhaave, Hunczousky, Faxe, and others. "When united 

 with scurvy-grass it has been considered a specific, especially 

 in that form of the disease where the sanguineous temperament 

 exists, and a tendency is discoverable to headaches, febrile 

 affections, flushings of heat, &c. ; indeed, the combination of 

 vegetable acids with scurvy-grass, and particularly of this one, 

 will be found the most efficacious medicine in the advanced 

 stages of that formidable disease, where the fluids of the body 

 show manifest signs of putrescence, by the appearance of spots 

 or blotches on the skin, spongy and ulcerated gums, fungous 

 ulcers in different parts of the body, &c. This method was 



* Farrol in Hist, de la Soc. R. de Med. 1776, p. 278. 



t Lobb de Dissolv. calc. p. 93. 



$ Bartholinus, Act. Havn. 1071, p- 35. Boerhaave, Hist. Plant, hort. 

 Ludg. bat. P. ii. p. 540. Hunczousky, Med. Chir. Beobacht, p. 192. 

 Faxe, om hushallningen til Sjos. p. 168. 



