Botanic Remedies 95 



paralysis, and in vital exhaustion is wholly unjusti- 

 fied. But I won't attempt to give a definite phar- 

 macology and therapeutics. Any agent of so pro- 

 nounced a toxicology, so generally used, and so 

 largely recognized in official standards, may not be 

 dismissed lightly. 



ARTEMISIA 



WORMWOOD, Artemisia absinthium. Official in 

 seventeen standards for some inscrutable reason. 

 Rarely employed medicinally. Is an ingredient of 

 absinthe. The volatile oil in large doses produces 

 cerebral disturbances with epileptiform convulsions. 



LEVANT WORMSEED, Artemisia Cina or A. panci- 

 flora, is the official source of santonin (q. v.). AMER- 

 ICAN WORMSEED is a different plant. See "Cheno- 

 podium." MUGWORT HERB, Lirtemisic vulgaris, 

 has been employed in Homeopathic practice as a 

 remedy for convulsive diseases of childhood. 



ASAFETIDA 



Official in all standards except the German as 

 the gum resin of Ferula foetida or other species. 

 GALBANUM, Ferula galbaniflua and rubicalis, is sim- 

 ilar in effect to asafetida and is official in fourteen 

 standards. SUMBUL, or MUSK ROOT, official in 

 Mexico and the United States, is Ferula Sumbul. 



A malodorous substance is asafetida, which with 

 musk and valerian, will probably soon be forgotten; 

 they would be little missed, especially since the 

 valeric esters are available. 



The U. S. P. pill may be used as a carminative, 

 but it is going out of use rapidly. The most defi- 

 nitely useful form of asafetida is in the form of 



