The Meadow Saffron. 189 



To such sufferers, we therefore address our history of the singu- 

 lar plant which has been named Colchicum, from its growing so 

 abundantly in the city of Colchis, a city of Armenia, celebrated 

 for its numerous poisonous plants, and as the birth-place of 

 Medea. It is thus noticed by Horace, in the thirteenth ode of 

 his second book : 



Or tempered every baneful juice, 

 Which poisoned Colchian glebes produce. 



Fabulous history informs us that this autumnal flower owes 

 its origin to some drops being spilt in the fields of the magic liquor 

 which Medea had prepared to restore the aged zEson to the bloom 

 and vigor of youth, and on this account the Colchicum was re- 

 garded as a preservative against all sorts of maladies. Could 

 we divest the tales of antiquity of their fabulous dress, we should 

 find them all explanatory of real events, and not the mere ideas 

 of poetical imagination ; perhaps we should then discover that 

 Medea having relieved iEson from a fit of the gout, his subjects 

 celebrated her praise as having restored this monarch to youth 

 and sprightliness. As Medea is sometimes called Colchis, we 

 will surmise, for the consolation of our gouty friends, that it was the 

 Colchicum that relieved uEson from his infirmities ; and we also 

 hope that they may derive similar benefit through the aid of their 

 medical friends, assisted by the virtues of this powerful plant. 

 The Swiss peasants tie the flower of this plant around the necks 

 of their children, with a firm belief that it will render them invul- 

 nerable to all diseases. It is thought to be the same root as the 

 Hermodactylus of the ancient physicians, which, after having 

 been entirely disregarded for many generations, is now again 

 become an important article in the Materia Medica. Jt was for 

 some time employed in the form of a concealed medicine under 

 the name of Eau Medicinale, which attracted great attention by 

 its success in relieving the gout and rheumatic affections of the 

 joints, but which has also frequently taken an injurous effect 

 upon the constitutions of some persons ; it is therefore a medicine 

 that should only be applied by the most cautious practititioners ; 

 for the Colchicum is unquestionably a poisonous root, and its 

 deleterious effects are to be dreaded, until the precise dose is more 

 accurately ascertained than it seems to be generally at this time. 

 Mr. Waller observes, in his account of this plant, that one great 



