190 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Fig. 101. 



Description. — Root perennial. Stem bushy, two or three 

 feet high, much branched, woody at the lower part, covered 

 with a rough, gray bark, the upper part and branches 

 smooth and of a yellowish-green colour. The leaves are 

 alternate, smooth, glaucous, a little tomentose and dotted, 

 and doubly pinnated ; the leaflets are sessile, unequal and 

 oblong, the terminal one larger and obovate. The flowers 

 are of a pale greenish-yellow colour, in terminal corymbose 

 panicles, the terminal, or first unfolded, only having the 

 full number of the parts of fructification ; the others having 

 eight stamens and four sepals and petals. The petals are 

 large, rounded a little, toothed at the extremity, and con- 

 cave, attached by narrow claws. The stamens are equal 

 and bear small yellow anthers. The ovary is oval, with 

 crucial furrows, and is surmounted by a short style. The 

 capsule is gibbous, 4-lobed, and bursts at the summit of 

 each lobe, for the passage of numerous, angular, blackish 

 seeds. The process of impregnation is curious, each 

 anther in turn approaching the style, and after shedding 

 its pollen, retiring. 



Rue is a hardy evergreen under-shrub, a native 

 of the south of Europe and north of Africa. It is 

 cultivated in our gardens and has even become 

 naturalized in some parts of the United States. It 

 flowers during the whole summer, and is well 

 known by its strong, peculiar, and even foetid 

 smell. It was well known to the ancients, and is 

 frequently noticed in the writings of Hippocrates 

 and Galen, by whom it was lauded as an altera- 

 tive and alexiteric ; it formed one of the ingredients of the famous antidote of 

 Mithridates against poisons. Pliny states that it was eaten by painters and 

 engravers to benefit their eyesight, and notwithstanding its nauseous taste and 

 smell it is still used in salads in Germany ; whilst in Italy, we are told by 

 Bodard, it is prized by the Roman ladies to counteract the perfume of flowers, 

 which they dread. At one time it was used in Roman Catholic churches, to 

 sprinkle the holy water, and hence was called Herbe de Grace. 



Medical Properties, Sfc. — Rue is an active stimulant j even acting on the 

 skin like an acrid, but much more so on some persons than others. Its pow- 

 ers are owing to the presence of an oil principally contained in the leaves. 

 It is but little employed by regular practitioners, but is in much repute among 

 empirics and in domestic practice as an antispasmodic and emmenagogue. 

 It is a very powerful remedy, and deserves more attention from the profession 

 than is now awarded to it. It has proved highly useful in flatulent colic and 

 in some nervous complaints, as hysteria, and even in epilepsy. As a vermi- 

 fuge, also, it has displayed no inconsiderable powers, and as an emmenagogue 

 it has unfortunately been too well known, the records of our criminal courts 

 showing that no article is so commonly resorted to to procure abortion as the 

 oil of Rue ; in some cases at the expense of the life of the mother. Where 

 it has been employed as an abortive, the oil has, in almost every case, been 

 the preparation employed. This powerful article in overdoses acts like an 

 acro-narcolic, and should never be administered in any case without extreme 

 caution. 



From an analysis of this plant by Mahl, it is shown to contain volatile oil, 

 bitter extractive, a peculiar vegeto-animal matter, malic acid, and other sub- 

 stances common to vegetable substances. It owes its activity to the volatile 

 oil ,* this is of a yellowish-green colour, of a sp. gr. of 0*837, has a bitter acrid 



