VEBATRUM ALBUM. 
^41 
the colouring matter of the wood (hematin) is deposited abundantly 
ia small brilliant crystals, of a reddish white colour, bitter, acrid, 
and slightly astringent. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Logwood has been gene- 
rally considered as an astringent, and as such is medicinally em- 
ployed in diarrhoeas, in which disease it has been found highly effica- 
cions ; it has also been given with much benefit iu the latter stage of 
dysentery, to obviate the laxity of the intestines, and give tone to 
the general system. When taken into the stomach, it is said to tinge 
the urine and feces red, but from the experiments of Du Hamel and 
others, it does not, like madder and some other plants, colour the 
bones of animals. Logwood is generally prescribed in the form of 
the watery extract,* in doses of from ten to thirty grains, dissolved 
in cinnamon or some other distilled water ; the decoction may be 
given in doses of from one to three ounces several times in the day. 
Off. The Wood. 
Off. Pp. Extractum Haematoxyli, L. 
VERATRUM ALBUM. 
White Hellebore.-\ 
Class FoLYG AMI A. — Order Mon(ECIA. 
Nat. Ord. CoRONARiiE, Linn. JuNCi, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Hermaphrodite flower. Calyx none. Corolla 
six-petalled. Filaments six. Anthers quadrangular. Ger- 
mens three, erect, oblong, tapering- into a style, which is 
scarcely distingjiishable. Capsules three, many sided, witb 
one cell and one valve. Seeds numerous, oblong, compressed, 
tunicated. 
Male Flowers. Calyx, Corolla, and Stamens, 
the same as in the hermaphrodite. Germens absent. 
Spec. Char. Raceme terminal, decompound. Corolla erecst. 
* One cwt. of the wood is said to jield 20 lbs. of extract, 
-j- Fig. a. the gerraen, style and stigma. 
VOL. II. 
X 
