Medical Properties and Uses. Assafcetida is stimulant, expectorant, and antispasmodic, it is 
considered a more efficacious medicine than any of the other fetid gums ; hence it has been much employed 
in hysteria, hypochondriasis, flatulent colics, tympanites, dyspepsia, and many nervous disorders ; also as an 
anthelmintic, and as an emmenagogue, and for those peculiar convulsive and spasmodic symptoms which so 
often recur in the latter disease, it frequently proves the most efficacious remedy we possess. When we 
wish it to act immediately as an antispasmodic, it should be given in a fluid form, as that of the diluted 
tincture ; when inflammatory symptoms are present, it should be used with caution, owing to its stimulant 
qualities, and it may be conveniently combined with nitre or antimonials according to the state of the 
patient. As a topical remedy it is applied in the form of plaster to promote suppuration in indolent 
tumours, and also in the form of enema in convulsions attending dentition, worms, flatulent colic, &c. 
Assafostida may be taken in doses of from five to twenty grains, two, three, or more times a day. 
Off. The Gum-resin. 
Off Pp. Enema Fcetida, D. 
Mistura Assafoetidee, L. D. 
Tinctura Assafoetidee, L. E. D. 
Pilulse Assafoetidee Composite, E. 
It also enters into the combination of many other compound medicines. 
It is curious to observe the perspiration of plants, which is of various kinds. When of a watery nature, it 
can only be considered as a condensation of their insensible evaporation, perhaps resulting from some sudden 
change in the atmosphere. Groves of poplar, or willow, exhibit this phenomenon even in England, in hot 
calm weather ; when drops of clear water trickle from their leaves, like a slight shower of rain. Sometimes 
it is of a saccharine nature, as De la Hire observed in orange-trees. It is more glutinous in the lime, more 
resinous in the poplar, as well as in the cistus creticus. In the fractinus dictamnus albus, it is a highly inflam- 
mable vapour. Ovid has made an elegant use of the resinous exudations of Lombardy poplars, which he 
supposes to be the tears of Phaeton’s sisters, who were transformed into those trees. Such exudations must 
be considered as peculiar secretions ; for, it has been observed that, manna may be scraped from the leaves of 
the fraxinus ornus, as well as procured by incisions from its stem. They are sometimes signs of unhealthiness 
in the plant; at least such appears to be the nature of one kind of honey-dew, to which the birch is subject, 
and which, in consequence of an unfavourable wind, covers its leaves in the form of a sweet secretion. 
The perspiration of aquatic plants appears to be remarkably copious. Of these a considerable number 
grow constantly immersed in water ; as most species of potamogeton, or pond-weed. Their leaves are 
peculiarly vascular, drying quickly in the air, and withering after a few minutes exposure to it. 
The under sides of leaves are furnished with absorbing vessels: hence, in dry weather, they are seen 
to hang down. The truth of this assertion may be readily discovered by placing two leaves in water on 
different surfaces ; the one that floats upon the lower side will continue fresh and green for many days and 
weeks; while the other will immediately decay. Of sixteen leaves tried by Bonnet, the aspin and lilac 
were the only ones that seemed to imbibe moisture equally well on both sides. The leaves of the white 
mulberry were in this respect very remarkable : those supplied by the upper surface began to wither in the 
course of a few days, while the others continued in perfection for nearly six months. Leaves of the hazel- 
nut and rose, not only imbibe sufficient moisture for their own support, but also nourish such as grow upon 
the same branch. This property is particularly obvious in the leaflet of a French-bean, which has been seen 
to preserve its neighbour fresh, and unwithered, for a considerable time. 
It has been already observed, that the perspiration of aquatic plants is very copious; their absorbing 
powers are equally so, and they appear to be continually imbibing and emitting a quantity of moisture, much 
greater than has been observed in land-plants. Many aquatics, as the nymphcea alba, or white water-lily, 
float with only the upper surface of their leaves exposed to the air, which surface is so contrived that water 
will scarcely remain upon it. These leaves, though extremely juicy in their nature, dry with great rapidity, 
as does every part of the plant when gathered. It is extremely probable that they draw in water very 
copiously through their under sides, and perspire by the upper. 
