302 ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
armorctcea, known as horseradish, the economy of which is 
so well expressed in the following extract: 
“ The long, rough, snail-eaten leaves of the horseradish 
are not uncommonly seen on the banks of our rivers, but it 
is somewhat doubtful whether the plant is a native of our 
island, or has escaped from some of the gardens where it is 
so commonly grown as a condiment to our national dish of 
roast beef. From ancient times it seems to have been valued 
as a herb medicine, and in the days of Gerarde it was used 
at table, as we gather from his account of it. He says : 
* Horseradish, for the most part, groweth and is planted in 
gardens, yet I have found it wild in sundrie places, as at 
Nantwich, in Cheshire, in a place called the Milne Eye, as 
also at a small village neare London called Hogsden, in the 
field next to a farm-house leading to Kingsland, where my 
very good friend Mr. Bredwel, practitioner in physicke, a 
learned and diligent searcher of simples, and Mr. William 
Martin, one of the fellowship of Barber Surgeons, my deare 
and lovinge friende, in company with him, found it, and gave 
me knowledge of the place, where it flourishes to this day.’ 
He adds: f Horseradish stamped, with a little vinegar put 
thereto, is commonly used among the Germans for sauce to 
eat fish with, and such like meats as we do mustard; but 
this kind of sauce doth heat the stomach better, and causeth 
better digestion than mustard.’ In the following century 
it was employed in England as a condiment; for Robert 
Turner, in his ‘ British Physician/ published in 1687, after 
informing us that this herb is f under the dominion of Mars, 
and is hot and dry in the third degree,’ says it is eaten with 
f fish’ and f other meats’like mustard. The whole plant 
contains the essential oil to which its pungency is due, but 
it abounds chiefly in the root, which was formerly in great 
repute as a vermifuge for children. Gerarde and Coles both 
recommend it; Boerhaave speaks highly of it in scurvy; it 
is also said to have been useful in many chronic disorders, 
and was employed in dropsies and diseases of the kidneys. 
Thomas Bertholini affirms that the juice of horseradish dis¬ 
solved a calculus of stony concretion that w^as taken out of 
the human body. 
(i An infusion of the root in cold milk makes one of the 
safest and best cosmetics. Einhoff discovered that the acri¬ 
mony of horseradish is owing to a volatile oil of a pale yellow 
colour, which has the consistence of oil of cinnamon. The 
liquid obtained from the root gives traces of sulphur by dis¬ 
tillation. The tincture deposits crystals of sulphur, which 
are of a yellow colour, and when exposed to flame exhales a 
