58 
RHODODENDRON CHRYSANTHUM. 
medicinal properties made known, by Gmelin and Steller, about the 
year 1747,* who mention it as a medicine successfully used (in 
Siberia and other northern situations) for the cure of rheumatism, 
and other painful affections of the joints. It did not, however, 
excite much attention as a remedial agent till about the year 1779, 
when Koelpin strongly recommended it as an efficacious medicine, 
not only in rheumatism and gout, but in venereal cuses, and it is 
now very commonly employed in various parts of Europe.f 
Sensible Qualities. The leaves of this plant are inodorous, 
their taste bitterish, astringent, and somewhat austere; water 
extracts these qualities either by infusion or decoction. 
Medical Properties and Uses.— The leaves of this plant 
are stimulant, diaphoretic, and narcotic ; we are told, that when 
taken, they first increase the arterial action and excite perspiration, 
and that these effects are followed by a gradual diminution of the 
pulse, which in one patient was reduced to thirty-eight beats.j In large 
doses they prove a powerful narcotic poison, producing all the symp- 
toms common to other narcotics, viz. nausea, vomiting, intoxication, 
delirium, &c.§ In Siberia they use a decoction of this plant, made by 
putting two drachms of the dried leaves in an earthen pot, with about 
ten ounces of boiling water, keeping it nearly at a boiling heat for 
a night; this they take in the morning, and by repeating it three 
or four times, generally effected a cure. When administered in this 
way, it is said to occasion heat, thirst, and some df gree of delirium, 
and also a peculiar creeping sensation in the pans affected, which 
after a few hours subsides, ^d the pain is relieved. It has been 
remarked by Steller, that the effects produced by this plant are 
found to vary according to the soil on which it grows : that pro- 
duced in one place having been uniformly found narcotic, that of 
another cathartic, and that of a third productive of a sense of 
suffocation. 
This plant has not been much used in this country, but when pre- 
scribed, it is usually given in the form of decoction, made by boiling 
half an ounce of the dried leaves in ten or twelve ounces of water, 
over a slow fire, for twelve hours, in a covered vessel. The dose of 
* Flora Siberica, vol. iv. p. 121. 
t Pallas Flora Rossica, and J. H. Zahn Diss. Medinang. de Rhodod. Chrysanth. 
1783. 
t See Home's Cliu. Exper. p. 140. 
§ Similar effects were produced on a goat, which on eating ten leaves of the plant was 
seized in a few winutes with tremblings, sopor, &c. See Steller in Gmelin, J. c. 
