SPEEDWELL. 30(9 



The plant is eaten by horses, cows, goats and sheep, but refused 

 by swine. 



Qualities.— The fresh leaves have a very feeble but rather 

 grateful odour, which is lost in drying, but passes over in distil- 

 lation with water, without affording any volatile oil; to the taste, 

 they are almost insipid at first, but soon become rough and 

 slightly bitter. These qualities are most probably to be ascribed 

 to extractive and tannin. The saturated watery infusion of the 

 flowering tops is dull red, with rather a pleasant odour and 

 bitterish taste ; it is quickly rendered black by sulphate of 

 iron. The aqueous and spirituous extracts are bitter and sub- 

 astringent, the latter more completely so. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — This plant agrees with 

 many bitter substances ; it elevates in some degree the tone of 

 the organs, but its tonic action is both slow and feeble, and its 

 secondary operation is also obscure, so that it has been indis- 

 criminately recommended in maladies which call for tonics, and 

 in those which need demulcents. By Hoffmann*, who con- 

 tributed greatly to establish its reputation, it was considered to 

 be a cure for various diseases, particularly those affections of the 

 chest arising from a collection of mucus, such as cough, asthma f, 

 and even in ulcerated lungs J. Haller§ likewise attributes to 

 it great power in catarrhal suffocations. But considering the 

 character of these affections, and the reputed tonic property 

 of the remedy, we join with the judicious Murray || in ques- 

 tioning the propriety of the measure, as tending rather to 

 prevent than assist expectoration, unless debility of the lungs be 

 present, in which case the corroborant may be beneficial. Like 

 other slight astringents, it has not been without its advocates as 

 a lithontriptic. It is possible that it may sometimes excite the 

 kidneys and provoke more urine when these organs are in a 



* Diss, de infusi Veronicae efficacia praeferenda herbae These, recus. in 

 Opusc. Med. p. 390. 



■f " Sir John Hill commends the expressed juice of the plant, boiled into 

 a syrup with honey, as an excellent remedy in asthma and other affections 

 of the lungs."— Waller's Brit. Dom. Herb. 328. 



\ Francus (Veronica theizans, Coburg, 1700,) calls it " Polychresta herba 

 Veronica" and enumerates forty cases of its efficacy, especially recommend- 

 ing it in wounds, phthisis, and scabies. 



§ Hist. St. Helv. n. 542. 



|j Appar. Medic, torn. ii. p. 244. 



