The  Sundews  and  their  Uses. 
/Am.  Jour.  Phann. 
\      Nov;,  1878. 
These  few  examples,  which  could  readily  be  multiplied,  seem  to 
confirm  satisfactorily  the  natural  law,  the  examination  of  which  has 
been  attempted  in  the  foregoing.  In  every  instance  where  the  facts 
are  established,  and  where  the  organic  structure  is  known,  invisible 
gradations  become  evident  by  which  nature  succeeds  in  the  gradual 
differentiation  of  living  beings,  and  which  make  our  classifications 
appear  incomplete. 
Conclusions. —  I.  Botanic  species  and  families  which  are  similar  in 
their  characters  are  also  similar  in  the  nature  and  properties  of  their 
constituents. 
2.  The  species  which  form  the  connecting  link  between  similar 
groups  contain  constituents  belonging  to  the  allied  families. 
3.  The  botanic  and  natural  classification  of  the  medicaments  of 
vegetable  origin  is  the  only  scientific  and  rational  one. 
THE  SUNDEWS  AND  THEIR  USES. 
By  Pierre  Vigier. 
Abstract  from  a  paper  published  in  "  Bull,  gener.  de  Tru-rap  ,"  July  15,  1878. 
The  first  author  who  has  written  on  and  figured  the  round-leaved 
and  intermediate  sundew  during  the  sixteenth  century  is  Dodonaeus,  of 
Belgium,  who  considered  them  too  drying,  acrid  and  hot  to  be  of  any 
service  in  consumption,  in  which  disease  the  plants  were  then  em- 
ployed. Tabernaemontanus  (1588)  states  that  these  sundews  have  an 
acrid  and  burning  taste,  and  are  hot  and  drying  in  the  fourth  degree. 
Heermann  ( 1 7 1 5)  used  the  sundew  in  phthisis,  and  claims  that  it  dimin- 
ishes asthma,  relieves  hoarseness  and  imparts  strength.  Siegesbeck 
(17 16)  found  the  taste  of  the  leaves  to  be  acid,  and  of  the  flowers  and 
fruits  to  be  bitter ;  that  the  juice  coagulates  warm  milk,  and  that  the  plant 
produces  in  sheep  which  eat  it  a  serious  cough.  He  prescribed  the 
decoction  of  the  fresh  herb  in  catarrhal  bronchitis,  and  employed 
a  tincture  with  success  in  influenza  (grippe)  and  in  epidemic  pertussis 
in  171  2.  Linnaeus  stated  that  the  acrid  juice  of  the  droseras  is  useful 
against  warts,  and  Haller  asserted  that  the  sundew  produces  excoria- 
tions of  the  skin.  Hahnemann  and  other  homoeopathic  practitioners 
confirmed  its  efficacy  in  phthisis  and  severe  coughs.  Vicat,  in  his 
treatise  on  the  poisonous  plants  of  Switzerland,  regards  the  sundews  as 
corrosive,  as  ulcerating  the  skin,  and  as  hurtful  for  the  teeth  ;  notwith- 
