Foreign Vegetables. 43^ 
fions and Deco&ions of Agarick in watery Men- 
ftruums are of little Ufe. Neverthelefs, an Infu- 
fion of it in Water turns blue Paper, purple. The 
purgative Virtue of this Medicine feems to be 
chiefly owing to that Spirit or thin burning Oil, 
which arifes in the firffc Portions of Liquor * from 
whence alfo proceeds its acrimonious Tafte. 
Diofcorides and Galen with the ancient Greeks , 
commend Agarick for many different Diflempers ; 
but efpecially for the Jaundice, Epilepfy, Afthma, 
Sciatica, and Gout ; and have touched but (lightly 
on its cathartick Virtue : So that there is room to 
conje£ture, that the Ancients employed Agarick, 
not fo much for purging, as for inciding and open- 
ing. Avicenna likewife, among the Arabians , com- 
mends it as an inciding and digeftive Medicine, if 
taken in a fmall Quantity with a little Opium. More- 
over it was allowed to have an anthelminthick and 
alexipharmack Quality *, and on this Account is an 
Ingredient in Venice- Treacle, and other alexiphar- 
mack Compofltions, as may be feen in Scribonius 
Largus : Yet many of the Arabians reckoned it a- 
mong Evacuants. The Moderns now rank it among 
purging Medicines and commend it chiefly to e- 
vacuate Phlegm ; perhaps for this Reafon, becaufe 
the Excrements after taking it are commonly white* 
They ufe it as a Cathartick in many purging Com- 
pofltions. They likewife give it to render the Se- 
rum fluxil, when tending to coagulate, and to pre- 
pare it for Excretion. Hence it is accounted fer- 
viceable in catarrhous Diforders, the Coriza and o- 
ther Defluxions *, in an Afthma, Cough, and Ca- 
chexy *, in the Fluor albus , Supprefflon of the monthly 
Purgations, and in quotidian and flow Fevers, if 
owing to a Congeftion of crude Humours. It is 
given indifferently to ftrong and weak, to young 
and old People, as alfo to breeding Women ; and 
F f 2 that 
