COLCIIICUM AUTUMNALE, 
47 
a scruple, and sometimes in less quantities ;" in small doses it is said 
to promote perspiration, urine, and uterine flux.* 
By long boiling, the asarabacca loses much of its active properties ; 
tlie decoction or watery extract having no cathartic or emetic 
qualities, but retaining the diaphoretic, emmenagogue, and diuretic 
properties. '* It is said, that alcoholic tinctures possess both the 
*' emetic and cathartic properties of the plant ; that the extract 
*' obtained by inspissating these tinctures, acts only by vomiting, 
** and with great mildness. "f 
In modern practice, the Asarum is seldom given internally, as the 
evacuations expected from its use may be procured with more safety 
and certainty, by ipecacuan and other medicines. 
The asarabacca is now chiefly used as an errhine, and the 
powdered root or leaves, in the quantity of one or two grains of the 
former, or of four or five of the latter, generally excite considerable 
sneezing, accompanied with a copious discharge of mucus. Hence 
in those disorders which are likely to be relieved by such a discharge, 
the asarabacca will be found a powerful medicine ; it is said to form 
the chief ingredient in most of the celebrated herb-snuffs. 
Off". The Leaves. 
Ofi^. Pp. Pulvis Asari Comp. Ed. D. 
♦ 
COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE. 
Meadow Saffron.'^, 
Class Hexandria. — Order Trigynia. 
Nat. Ord. Spathace^, Linn. Junci, Juss. 
Gen. Char. CWoZZa, 6-parted, with a radiated tube. Cap- 
sule 3-lobed. 
Spec. Char. Leaves lanced, erect. 
The Colchicum Autumnale is a perennial plant, indigenous 
to Britain, and the temperate countries of Europe. In this country 
* Vide Ray, Hist. p. 208. 
t Duncan's Edinburgh New Dispensatory. 
X Fig. a. (in the annexed drawing) represents a full-blown flower, shewing the 
stamina and pistilJa. 6. The root. c. A leaf, one third of the lower part cut off, rf. The 
pistilla. e. The capsule split open. 
