MEADOW SAFFRON. 205 
In such a night 
Medea gathered the enchanted herbs 
That did renew old iEson. 
Siiaespeare. 
It had been suggested also that, as Medea is 
sometimes called Colchis, it was this plant that 
relieved ^Eson from his infirmities. Hence it came 
to be considered as a preservative against all sorts of 
diseases. The Swiss hang it round their children's 
necks, and imagine them to be thenceforth exempt 
from every kind of ailment. 
Most superstitious notions, however, ridiculous as 
they may now appear, originated in the first in- 
stance in some reasonable opinion. Could we 
divest the tales of antiquity of their fabulous dress, 
we should probably find them all explanatory of 
real events. In this case, wc should perhaps disco- 
ver that Medea, having relieved ^Eson from a fit of 
the gout, his subjects celebrated her praise for 
having restored their sovereign to youthful spright- 
liness. This interpretation is rendered the more 
plausible by the late discovery of the powerful 
efficacy of the Colchicum, not only in gout and 
rheumatic affections of the joints, but also in most 
inflammatory disorders. In many cases, however, 
