26 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
certainly deserves attention, and would be an invaluable addi- 
tion to the Materia Medica. I am not aware that this plant, 
or more than one of its preparations, are now used. Some of 
them, however, were officinal in the foreign Pharmacopoeias. 
The preparation to which I have just alluded, is the oleaginous 
infusion of the flowers. This is frequently used as an applica- 
tion to contusions, speedily removing the blackness, and effect- 
ing a cure. 
Before dismissing this subject, I think it proper to state, 
that the St. John's Wort is a plant generally detested by the 
agriculturist in consequence of its pernicious effect on some of 
his domestic animals. It is a curious fact, that if this plant 
comes in contact with a white portion of the skin of either 
the horse or the cow, the part becomes highly inflamed, and 
a very painful sore is produced; whereas, if the skin be of 
any other colour, it remains unaffected. I have also observed 
that if the sore thus produced, from any cause becomes wet, 
the effect is evidently agonizing pain to the animal. It is also 
said that sheep, suffered to run in a pasture where this plant 
is abundant, prematurely shed their wool. 
