SIB 



SIB 



25. t. 6. f. I. Scotch Cinquefoil; Petiv. Herb. Brit. 

 t. 41. f. 7.) — Leaflets wedge-fhaped, three-toothed. — Na- 

 tive of the fummits of the highelt mountains of Lapland, 

 Scotland, Switzerland, Siberia, and North America. 

 Tournefort gathered it alfo in Cappadocia. The plant 

 thrives bed in a mouldering micaceous foil, flowering in 

 June and July. The root is perennial and woody, throwing 

 out many (hort, fpreading, leafy, herbaceous, round, 

 downy Jlems, which are flightly branched, and procumbent, 

 except fometimes at their floweiing extremities. Leaves on 

 long ftalks, whofe bafe bears a pair of oblong, acute _y?;- 

 pulat, like thofe of a rofe ; their leaflets three, on fhort 

 partial (talks, wcdge-fliaped, inclining to ovate, green, 

 hairy, entire, except their three large terminal teeth. Flowers 

 in fmall terminal leafy corymbs, inconfpicuous, with mi- 

 nute yellow petals and jlamens, inferted into the thickened 

 rim of the green leafy calyx. Seeds dry, hairy. We have 

 noticed in Fl. Lapp, that Plukenet's t. 212. f. 3, cited by 

 Linnaeus, and recently copied by Purfh, belongs rather to 

 the Potenttlla fubacaulis ; nor does this figure, in eflential 

 points, refemble our SibbalJia. 



2. S. ereaa. Tall Sibbaldia. Linn. Sp. PI. 407. Willd. 

 n. 2. Purfh n. i. (S. n. 42 ; Gmel. Sib. v. 3. 186. 

 Pentaphylloides fohis tenuiflime laciniatis, flofculis carncis ; 

 Amman. Ruth. 85. t. 15.) — Leaves in numerous linear 

 fegments. Stem ereft, much branched, leafy. Petals 

 obovate. — Native of (lony ground in Siberia, flowering in 

 Augult. Mr. Nuttall is recorded by Purfh, as having 

 gathered this plant on the banks of the MUlouri, in North 

 America. The root is tapering, brown, probably pe- 

 rennial. Stem ereft, a fpan high, round, downy, much 

 branched in a corymbofe manner, leafy from top to bottom, 

 many-flowered. Leaves crowded, (talked, hairy, repeatedly 

 three-cleft, witii linear, obtufe, revolute, entire fegments, 

 like thofe of an yfrtemifia. Flowers fomewhat racemofe, 

 fmall, flefli-coloured. 



3. S. altaica. Large-flowered Sibbaldia. Linn. Suppl. 

 191. Willd. n. 3. "Pall. A6t. Petrop. for 1773, 526. 

 t. 18. f. 2." (S. n. 42, var. j ; Gmel. Sib. v. 3. 187.)— 

 Leaves in numerous linear fegments. Stems (lightly 

 branched. Petals roundifh-hcart-fliaped. — Pound by Pallas 

 very abundantly on the rocks of Dauria. The Jlems are but 

 about three inches high, flender, often fimple, and (lightly 

 leafy. Flowers, efpccially their petals, three or four times 

 the IJze o{ the lall, of which neverthelefs Gmclin, and at 

 one time Pallas himfelf, thought this plant a variety. 



SII5BENS, or Sivvex.s, in Medicine, an infcftious dif- 

 cafe, of a chronic nature, fomewhat refembling (yphilis, 

 prevalent in the wellern parts of Scotland. It is faid to be 

 (o denominated from the appearance of a fungous cxtu- 

 berance from fome of the cutaneous fores, not unlike a rafp- 

 berry ; the word Jil/ien, or Jivven, being the Highland 

 appellation for a wild rafpbcrry. Whence it has alio been 

 fometimes confounded with the yaius, a difcale of tropical 

 climates, brought from Africa, and fo denominated by the 

 Negroes from the fame fruit. See Framboe.sia and 

 Yaws. 



This mahvdy is not of ancient date in Scotland. The 

 firlt writer on the fubjedl was Dr. Gikhrill, who, in the 

 year 1765, diltributed a (hort defcription of X\\e Jihhens 

 among the people of Ayrfhire, which was afterwards pub- 

 lifhed by the Philofoplncal Society of Edinburgh. (See 

 Effays and Obfervations Phyfical and Literary, vol. iii. 

 art. II.) According to tradition in the Highlands, the 

 itlifeafe was introduced there by the (oldiers of Oliver Crom- 

 well, who laboured under the venereal dileafe, when gar- 

 rifoncd in that (.ountry. From thence it is faid to h;,ve been 



carried to Dumfries by a party of foldieri, who had been 

 llationed in the north Highlands ; and it is perfedly afcer- 

 tained, according to Dr. Paterfon, that it was introduced 

 into Ayrlhire, about the year 1745, by people who went 

 thither from Dumfries to buy cattle. Since that period, it 

 has conltantly prevailed in different places in that diftriA, 

 at diflFerent times ; fometimes abating fo much, both in vim- 

 lence and frequency of occurrence, as to give hopes that it 

 would entirely difappear ; then breaking out again with 

 greater violence, generally in the harved feafon, and fpread- 

 ing over feveral parilhes. (See Dr. Paterfon's Letter, in 

 Beddoes's Contributions to Phyfical and Medical Know- 

 ledge, p. 408.) At its firft appearance, it occafioncd little 

 uneafinefs or apprehenfion to thofe affedted with it ; but it 

 was foon difcovered to be a formidable difeafe, refembling 

 in charafter the venereal difeafe, and to be propagated es- 

 tenCvely by its contagion, infomuch that, as Dr. Gilchrift 

 exprefl'es it, " great are the perplexity and diftrefs, the fuf- 

 picion and terror, caufed by it, wherever it comes ; and 

 hitherto nothing has been able to prevent the fpreading of 

 it." The difeafe difters, however, materially from lues ve- 

 nerea, though it is cured by the fame remedy j the poifon 

 being introduced into the fyltem not through the medium 

 of the organs of generation, but commonly by the mouth 

 and throat, in which the primary ulcerations occur. 



The fibbens alniolt always begins with an inflammation 

 of the throat, firlt on the uvula and velum pendulum of the 

 palate, and afterwards on the tonfils, of a dark red colour, 

 which is fucceeded in one or two days, and fometimes fo late 

 as fix or eight, by fmall pimples, or veficles, which termi- 

 nate in ulcers, with a white furface, and red abrupt edges. 

 There is often alfo an aphthous appearance, or a ferics of 

 white fpecks and (loughs, upon the roof of the mouth, and 

 infide of the cheeks and lips, which commonly (hews itfelf 

 alfo at the corners of the mouth, in a fmall rifing of the (kin, 

 of a pearl or whey-colour ; upon which part alfo a fmall 

 fungous excrefcence often appears, not unlike a rafpberry, 

 which changes to a fcab, and is a pretty fure fign of the 

 difeafe, aithough there be no aphtha: or fore throat. The 

 uvula is fometimes dcftroyed by the ulceration ; and chil- 

 dren at the brealt, when thus atTefted in the mouth and 

 throat, have pcri(hed from hunger, not being able to fuck 

 or (wallow. 



In a little time the conftitution is contaminated by the 

 abforption of the poifon, and a ferics of fecondary fymp- 

 toms appears. In fome, and efpecially in adult perlon», 

 dark red fpots, or fometimes fungous excrcfcenccs, arife 

 about the anus and periiixum, which gradually increafe and 

 ulcerate. But the moft common appearances are eruption! 

 of a pu(tular charaftcr on the (kin, coiitaining, however, 

 little fluid, and foon terminating in a dry fcab, furrounded 

 by a livid margin, and ultimately in ulceration. In fome, 

 and cipccially in children, thefe eruptions occupy chiefly the 

 belly, groins, and fides, and ar^.* fometimes fccn on the face. 

 The ulcers, into which tliey pafs, ufually make but fmall 

 progrefs, not exceeding in general the point of the finger 

 ill fi/c, and being irregular in their forms, and pretty clean, 

 with (lightly inflamed edges. In fome inftances, however, 

 they have been Icen to become confluent, and to unite into 

 one large foul ulcer over a great part of the abdomen, ex- 

 haling a moll intolerable and peculiar (tench. In fome 

 children, indeed, the whole Icalp ha"; gangrened, and the 

 cars have nearly fallen oS. Smaller ulcers have alfo formed 

 on the bread and face, covered with a purulent Hough, re- 

 maining inert, without pain or inflammation, and icldom 

 increafing in (Ize. 



In other cafes, where the primary fymptoni. iiavc be«ii 

 4 M ' moderate. 



