RANUNCULUS CROWFOOT BUTTERCUP. 63 



Lower leaves petioled, divided into 3 or more obtusely toothed or lobed 

 segments. It blooms during summer. 



Habitat. — In pools and ditches ; common both here and in Europe. 



The above-described species of ranunculus are the most important of 

 the genus, though many others possess nearly identical properties. 



Part Used. — The herb — not official. 



Constituents. — The ranunculi are all more or less acrid, some of them 

 extremely so. Little is known of the acrid principle, save that it is 

 volatile, and is diminished or entirely lost by drying and long keeping. 



Preparations. — Used only in the fresh state. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The ranunculi are too acrid to render 

 their internal use either desirable or safe. Most of them are avoided by 

 domestic animals ; one may often see R. acris, for example, growing lux- 

 uriantly in pastures where almost every blade of grass is cropped close. 

 Their acrid properties have, however, led to their employment externally as 

 rubefacients or vesicants in cases where other and perhaps better agents 

 were not at hand, or were for any reason contra-indicated. As is well 

 known, cases of idiosyncrasy occur in which cantharides are inadmissible 

 on account of their effect upon the urinary organs. In some such cases 

 ranunculus has been used with good effect. One of the faults of this agent 

 is its extreme violence. The fresh plant, bruised and applied to the skin, 

 may vesicate in an hour or hour and a half, and may possibly produce an 

 ulcer not easy to heal. It is, therefore, far less safe as a rubefacient than 

 mustard, and, as a rule, much less desirable as a vesicant than cantharides. 

 It has been emphryed to some extent in European countries as an external 

 application in chronic rheumatism, neuralgia, etc., but never sufficiently to 

 have obtained a place in the pharmacopoeias. In this country it is used 

 still less, and is little more than mentioned in works on materia medica. 



An interesting observation regarding the possible effect of R. acris on 

 pregnant cows was reported to the author by his brother, Mr. F. M. John- 

 son. In a herd of cows pastured for years in succession in an old field 

 thickly beset with this weed, abortion was frequent and troublesome. As 

 soon, however, as this pasture was broken up and the herd moved to an- 

 other part of the farm in which the plant did not grow, abortion dis- 

 appeared. Now although, as stated above, domestic animals avoid this 

 plant, yet when feeding where it is very abundant, they must occasionally 

 swallow it accidentally ; and though there is no positive proof that the abor- 

 tions were due to the plant in question, the facts as stated are interesting 

 and significant. It is at least possible that ranunculus exerts an influence 

 upon the reproductive organs like that which is claimed by some for 

 Pulsatilla. 



