PULMONARIA, OR 

 LUNGWORT. 



J'uhiioiiai'la itjjicuinlh. 



EARNJ'jD writers are often too reudy 

 to sneer at homely medieines ami 

 luedieiual herbs, hut a plant that 

 lias traditional fame as an aid in 

 sickness may he taken to have 

 done something for humanity, in 

 however humble a way. If we turn 

 to a materia medica, say Pereira's 

 for instance, we shall find no men- 

 tion of the lungwort. And here it 

 seems proper to observe that a 

 plant may possess properties that 

 cannot be jM'eserved in extracts or 

 unguents, which in such concen- 

 trated form are kept bottled and 

 sealed down for use when wanted. But to obtain a place 

 in the materia medica, it must have properties that can lie 

 secured for future service by distillation or some other jiro- 

 eess, and conseqneiitly if it is useful only in a fresh state 

 as an infusion or fumigation, it must remain unknown to 

 technical medicine. The lungwort doubtless obtained its 

 name from services rendered in lung diseases when the 

 medical art was in a primitive state. And if it proved 



