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POPULAR HISTORY OP LICHENS. 



In various parts of Scandinavia it is used by the peasantry, 

 especially for the fattening of swine, oxen and horses. From 

 a real or supposed capacity for retaining moisture, its gum 

 or mucilage has been preferred in Germany to common paste 

 for dressing the warp of webs in the loom; and it has 

 likewise been used in the sizing of paper. Its bitter prin- 

 ciple renders it purgative, a quality severely felt by Sir John 

 Franklin and his companions in some of their Arctic voy- 

 ages, they being frequently scarcely able to eat this nutri- 

 tious Lichen, though in a state approaching starvation. This 

 purgative property is greatest in the fresh plant, becoming 

 deteriorated by drying ; hence the Icelanders were at one 

 time in the habit of using the fresh plant as an evacuant 

 in spring. It has been recommended as a valuable anti- 

 scorbutic in countries w T here it is abundant. Petersen states 

 that the Iceland scurvy, a kind of elephantiasis, is rare 

 where the inhabitants consume in their food much of this 

 Lichen or other vegetables, and common where, on the other 

 hand, they use chiefly sour milk and rancid fish. From its 

 astringency, which is due to the presence of gallic acid, it 

 has likewise been used in tanning. Moreover it has, at va- 

 rious times, enjoyed celebrity in the treatment of a multitude 

 of diseases ; but its virtues have either been imaginary, or 



