APIACE^E. 



341 



It is principally employed to relieve pain in malignant tumours, but does not 

 appear ever to act as a curative agent in these complaints, though some prac- 

 titioners assert that their removal has been accomplished by a long-continued 

 use of it. Hemlock has also been highly spoken of as a deobstruent and 

 alterative in chronic enlargements of the liver and other visceral organs; in 

 scrofulous tumours, and glandular swellings, in some obstinate diseases of the 

 skin, as elephantiasis and leprosy, in chronic 'rheumatism and neuralgia, &c. 

 It has likewise been praised as an antispasmodic in pertussis, asthma, and 

 chronic catarrh, and even in tetanus. It is sometimes used externally in the 

 form of a cataplasm in cancerous and other foul ulcers; and as a fomenta- 

 tion to painful swellings. 



Its usual preparations are the powder, tincture, extract, ointment, and poul- 

 tice. The dose of the powdered leaves is from three to four grains twice a 

 day, to be gradually increased, till some obvious effects are induced. The 

 extract, which is often worthless, and not to be depended upon, and even when 

 well made, contains but little conia, according to Drs. Christison and Pereira, 

 is usually administered in the same doses as the powder, which are to be in- 

 creased in the same manner. The tincture is often a good mode of giving 

 Hemlock ; the dose is from thirty minims to a drachm. It should be borne 

 in mind, that to keep up a'given impression, it is requisite to increase the doses 

 of these preparations very rapidly, and as the strength of all of them is ex- 

 ceedingly unequal, the same parcel should always be used, or if a change be 

 made, small doses of the new one be commenced with, so as to obviate any 

 danger that might arise from its greater power. The cataplasm is made either 

 from the juice of the fresh leaves, or from a decoction of the dried ones, or 

 even from a solution of the extract mixed with a due quantity of linseed or 

 corn meal. 



CCELOSPERM^G. 

 Section 8. Coriandre^e. — Fruit laterally compressed, didymous, or globose. 



Coriandrum. — Linn, 



Fig. 161. 



Calyx-teeth 5, acute, unequal, permanent. 

 Petals obovate, emarginate, with inflexed 

 lobes, the exterior radiating and bifid. Fruit 

 globose. The mericarps with 5 primary 

 depressed, undulated ridges, and 4 secondary 

 ones more prominent and carinate. Chan- 

 nels destitute of vittae ; commissures with 

 2 vittae. Seed excavated in front, with a 

 loose skin. 



The only species that requires notice 

 is C. sativum, an annual, inhabiting 

 the southern parts of Europe, and af- 

 fording a dry, globular fruit, having a 

 peculiar smell, and pleasant, aromatic 

 taste. In a fresh state, these, as well 

 as the whole plant, have a disagreeable 

 odour, resembling that of bugs. Co- 

 riander is aromatic and carminative, 

 and may be used like other articles of its class. Cullen considered it as a 



C. sativum. 

 1. A portion of an umbel in fruit. 2. A fruit 

 magnified. 3. Transverse section of the same. 



