Chap. 37.] 
THE WILLOW. 
25 
proach of serpents.^^ The seed^^ is good for pains in the 
stomach, chest, and sides ; it dispels flatulency and sudden 
chills, soothes cough, and brings indurations to a head. Ap- 
plied topically, it checks the growth of tumours ; and the 
berries, taken in red wine, act astringently upon the bowels : 
they are applied also to tumours of the abdomen. The seed 
is used as an ingredient in antidotes of an aperient nature, and 
is diuretic in its effects. It is used as a liniment for de- 
fluxions of the eyes, and is prescribed for convulsions, rup- 
tures, griping pains in the bowels, affections of the uterus, 
and sciatica, either in a dose of four berries in white wine, or 
in the form of a decoction of twenty berries in wine. 
There are persons who rub the body with juniper berries as 
a preventive of the attacks of serpents. . 
CHAP. 37. (9.) THE WILLOW I FOTJRTEEN REMEDIES. THB 
WILLOW OF ameria: one BEMEDY. 
The fruit of the willow, before it arrives at maturity, is 
covered with a down like a spider's web : gathered''^ before it 
is ripe, it arrests discharges of blood from the mouth. The 
bark of the upper branches, reduced to ashes and mixed with 
water, is curative of corns and callosities : it removes spots 
also upon the face, being still more efficacious for that purpose 
if mixed with the juices of the tree. 
The juices produced by the willow form three different 
varieties ; one" of which exudes in the shape of a gum from 
5t) Yirgil says this of tlie fumes of the cedar, Georg. III. 414; an 
additional proof, Fee says, that under the name of cedrus," the juniper 
was really meant. The smoke of the juniper is not known to have the 
effect upon serpents here described. 
The berries of the juniper contain sugar, mucilage, and a small pro- 
portion of essential oil ; a rob is prepared from them, Fee says, under the 
name of "extract of juniper." 
5^ It is a well-known fact, that juniper berries are diuretic ; they impart 
also to the urine the odour of the violet, a property which is equally pos- 
sessed by turpentine. All the other properties here attributed to the 
juniper, are, in F^e's opinion, either hypothetical or absurd. 
59 See B. xvi. c. 68. 
^0 Neither this downy substance nor the seeds are now employed for 
any purpose. The bark of the willow has some strongly-pronounced pro- 
perties, but all other parts of it are totally inert. 
A kind of manna, Fee says. The other juices here mentioned are 
secreted from the sap. 
