^oT^JP1'}        The  Sundews  and  their  Uses.  §37 
standing  this,  they  were  employed  against  coughs,  asthma  and  ulcera- 
tion of  the  lungs. 
The  Pharmacopaeia  of  Wirtemberg  contained  a  compound  syrup  of 
sundew  and  an  elixir  pectorale  Wedelii,  having  sundew  as  one  of  the 
ingredients. 
In  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  sundew  fell  into 
discredit,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  it  was  rarely 
asked  for,  and  few  pharmacists  kept  a  preparation  of  sundew. 
In  i860  Dr.  Eugene  Curie  experimented  with  the  drosera  upon 
animals,  and  reported  his  observations  to  the  Paris  Academy  of  Science, 
September  2,  1861  ;  he  had  administered  the  plant  in  pulmonary  con- 
sumption in  the  form  of  tincture  and  of  alcoholic  extract.  In  1863, 
the  author  obtained  from  an  herbalist,  in  the  Vosges,  several  hundred 
kilograms  of  Drosera  rotundifolia,  at  the  rate  of  10  francs  per  kilo,  the 
fresh  plant  being  received  twice  a  week  in  a  state  of  perfect  preserva- 
tion. It  was  immediately  bruised,  mixed  with  its  own  weight  of 
alcohol,  and  after  maceration  for  a  month,  expressed,  and  the  tincture 
filtered.  This  had  an  alcoholic  strength  of  56  volumetric  per  cent., 
could  be  indefinitely  preserved,  was  of  a  dark-brown  color  and  a  peculiar 
odor,  and  contained  all  the  medicinal  principles  of  the  plant.  On  one 
occasion  an  assistant,  while  expressing  the  tincture,  had  kept  his  hands 
in  it  for  some  time  and  found  the  skin  as  if  it  had  been  burned. 
On  distilling  off  the  alcohol,  an  extract  of  slight  consistence,  but 
easy  of  administration  and  therapeutically  active,  was  obtained.  Pills 
were  made,  consisting  of  5  grams  of  this  extract,  and  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  liquorice  root,  the  mass  being  divided  into  100  pills. 
Several  years  afterwards  the  author  had  sundew  collected  in  the 
forest  of  Saint  L£ger  and  received  Drosera  longifolia  in  masses  agglu- 
tinated by  the  juice  of  the  glands  and  mixed  with  damp  earth  and 
mosses.  This  lot  was  only  used  for  preparing  the  extract,  which  had 
the  same  properties  as  that  of  the  preceding  species. 
The  author  has  since  succeeded  in  having  the  sundew  collected  at  5 
francs  per  kilo,  and  since  it  takes  7  kilos  of  the  fresh  plant  to  produce  1 
kilo  of  the  dry,  it  follows  that  a  kilo  of  the  latter  costs  35  francs,  and 
could  not  be  furnished  in  commerce  for  less  than  40  or  50  francs. 
The  author  has  not  yet  succeeded  in  cultivating  the  two  species 
of  drosera. 
The  dried  plant,  treated  with  60  per  cent,  alcohol,  yields  one-fourth 
