W O R 



The preparation is this : the worms are to be colleAed in 

 the fpring or fummer months, and the larger fort are the 

 bed. They are to be carefully dried, and reduced to a fine 

 powder ; this powder is to be mixed up into tlie confiftence 

 of a poultice, with oil of tartar per deViqmum, and this is to 

 ftand twenty.four hours ; then fpirit of wine is to be poured 

 on it, fo as to reach three fingers-breadth above it, and a 

 drachm of faffron, and half a drachm of caller, are to be 

 added, and the whole is to Itand three days m infufion, and 

 after this be filtered off for ufe. Some add a fmall quantity 

 of opium to the tinfture, but as it is often wanted m cafes 

 where opium is not proper, it is better to keep it feparate 

 thus made ; and when there is occafion to have it opiated, 

 to add as many drops of laudanum as is judged neceffary. 



The oil of tartar in this cafe penetrates the very innermoll 

 lUufture of the worms, and is a means of extrafting fuch 

 a tinfture from them, as no art could otherwife contrive to 

 make; and the medicine becomes, according to Hoffmann, 

 much more than an anodyne, from the admixture of the fait 

 of tartar in the tinfture. 



When it is intended to be made with opium, it is always 

 proper to add alfo fome of the hound's-tongue root, which 

 is found as an anodyne to emulate the virtues of opium. 



This tinfture, whichever way prepared, is excellent in 

 abating the pains of difeafes that do not admit a cure. 

 The fits of the gout are rendered cafier by every dofe of 

 it ; and even in cancers, the pain is quieted in a wonderful 

 manner by it, and life rendered inucii more fupportable. 

 Hoffmann's Aft. Laborator. Chym. 



Worms, in Geography, late a bifhopric of Germany, in the 

 circle of the Upper Rhine, furrounded by the Lower Palati- 

 nate, the county of Katzenelnbogen, and the eleftorate of 

 Mentz ; about ten miles in length along the borders of the 

 Rhine. In ancient times, the Vangiones inhabited this dif- 

 trift. In the middle ages it was called " Wormbfveld," 

 "Wormatzfeld," or "Wormfergau;" andoneof thebifhops, 

 named Viftor, is faid to have affiiled at a council at Cologn, 

 iu the year 347. Of the ancient bilhops here, however, we 

 have little certainty. The feries of the prelates of Worms, 

 which may be molt depended on, begins with Erembert, 

 who was appointed bilhop thereof about the year 770. 

 The bifliop of Worms was fubjeft to the archbifhopric of 

 Mentz. In the circle of the Upper Rhine, he was the 

 fummoning prince and direftor. In the council of the 

 princes of the empire, he exchanged place on the fpiritual 

 bench with the eleftor of Wurzburg. The whole of the 

 bifhopric fituated on the left fide of the Rhine is annexed 

 to France, and included in the department of Mont Ton- 

 nerre. 



Worms, a town of France, in the department of Mont 

 Tonnerre, late an imperial city of Germany, in the circle 

 of the Upper Rhine, and capital of a bifliopric of the fame 

 name, anciently the capital of the Vangiones. It was fitu- 

 ated nearly in the centre of the diocefe to which it gave 

 name, not far from the Rhine, and near the place where the 

 Eilbach and Gieffenbach fall into it. This city was ac- 

 counted one of the free Lutheran imperijj cities, with 

 toleration and freedom of worfhip to the Catholics. The 

 Calvinifts had alfo a church here. To the Catholics be- 

 longed not only the cathedral, but likewife four collegiate 

 and the like number of parifh churches in or near the city, 

 a college, a gymnafium, three convents, and three nun- 

 neries. The biihop's palace here was built quite new, in 

 1719, at the expence of bifhop Francis Louis. The kings 

 of the Francs appointed counts and dukes over it. From 

 time immemorial it has been termed a free imperial city, and 

 is fo ftyled in fome records of the emperor Charles IV., 



W O R 



bearing date in 1355 and 1356, and in the regifter of the 

 cities of 1386, and was alfo acknowledged fuch in 1479, in 

 the diet at Nuremberg ; an'd by the rmperor Maximilian I., 

 in formal inllruments of 1507 and 1508. In 1495, '5^'> 

 1545, and 1578, diets were held here, and this was the 

 place in which the reformation began in 1535. In 1743, 

 a treaty was concluded here betwixt his Britannic raajefty, 

 the queen of Hungary, and the king of Sardinia. In the 

 beginning of the revolution, Worms furrendered to a de- 

 tachment of the French republican army, and was laid under 

 a heavy contribution by Cuftine, but evacuated after the 

 lofs of Mentz. It was again taken in 1794 ; 25 miles S. of 

 Mentz. N. lat. 49° 36'. E. long. 8° 22'. 

 Worms. See Bormio. 



Worms'/ Head, or Penrhyn Giuyr, a rock on the fouth 

 coail of Wales, in the county of Glamorgan. N. lat. 51° 

 36'. W. long. 4° 17'. 



WORMSDORF, a town of Saxony, in the circle of 

 Leipfic ; 20 miles E. of Leipfic. N. lat. 51° 16'. E. long. 

 12° 53'. 



WORMSER JocH, a mountain of the Tyrolefe, be- 

 tween the fources of the Adige and the Adda ; 8 miles S. 

 of Glurentz. 



WORMVILLE, a town of United America, in the 

 Miffiflippi territory. 



WORMWOOD, Absinthium, in Botany. See Ar- 

 TEMISIA Abfinthium. 



The common wormwood, artemijta abjinthlum of Linnjeus, 

 grows wild about dunghills, and on dry wafte grounds, 

 flowers in June or July, and may be propagated by flips in 

 March or Oftober, or raifed from feeds fown foon after they 

 are ripe. The leaves have a ilrong offenfive fmell, and a 

 very bitter naufeous tafte ; the flowers are equally bitter, 

 but lefs naufeous ; the roots are warm and aromatic, with- 

 out the bitternefs and offenfivenefs of the other parts : the 

 leaves lofe part of their ill fmell by being dried and kept for 

 fome time. The aftive parts of this plant feem to be ex- 

 traftive, effential oil, and a fmall portion of refin. 



Wormwood leaves give out nearly the whole of their 

 fmell and tafte both to aqueous and fpirituous menfl;rua ; the 

 former, prepared without heat, being the leaft ungrateful. 

 Reftified fpirit elevates little from this plant in diftillation ; 

 water brings over nearly the whole of its fmell and flavour 

 Along with the aqueous fluid there arifes an effential oil, 

 which fmells ftrongly, and taftes naufeoufly of the worm- 

 wood, though not bitter. The oil drawn from the frelh 

 herb is commonly of a dark green ; from the dry, of a deep 

 yellowrifli-brown colour. The quantity of oil varies ac- 

 cording to the feafon and foil in which the wormwood is 

 produced : in fome years, ten pounds have afforded up- 

 wards of two ounces ; in others, twenty pounds have 

 yielded little more than one ounce. Geoffroy obferves 

 (Mem. Acad. Par. 1721), that in rainy feafons and moifl; 

 foils, it yields the moft oil ; that in dry years the oil is ac- 

 companied with a refinous matter, and proves of a fine green 

 colour ; and that in wet feafons it is lefs refinous, and not 

 green. A decoftion of wormwood in water, long boiled, 

 and infpiffated to the confiftence of an extraft, lofes the 

 fmell and flavour of the plant, but retains its bitternefs. 

 An extraft, made with reftified fpirit, contains, along with 

 the bitter, nearly the whole of the naufeous part ; the wa- 

 tery extraft gives out its fimple bitternefs, not only to water 

 again, but to reftified fpirit. 



Wormwood is a moderately warm ftomachic and corro- 

 borant : for thefe intentions it was formerly in common ufe, 

 but it has now given place to bitters of a lefs ungrateful 

 kind. An infufion of the leaves, with the addition of fixed 



4 alkaline 



