ASTRINGENTS. $l 
running from the ears; -.it is also good for relaxation in 
infants and adults, having a cleansing effect on the mucous 
membrane of the whole digestive tract; it is one of the ingre- 
dients of Dr. Coffin’s famous consumption mixture ; and to those 
about to become mothers it should take the place of ordinary 
tea, as it seldom fails to make a. difference in easing the 
labour. It is not too much to say that we have gathered and 
sold hundreds of pounds of these healing leaves. To make a 
tea of the fresh leaves steep a good handful in a quart of 
boiling water; sweeten, and drink freely. Of the dried leaves 
an ounce to the same quantity of water as above. Its other 
uses will be found further on, in our treatment division. 
BURNET HERB (Pimpinetta Sancutsorsa), 
Is another mild astringent. An old herb doctor writes 
of it thus: ‘It is a most precious herb, little inferior 
to betony. The continual use of it preserves the body 
in health and the mind in vigour. It is a friend to the 
heart, the liver, and the principal parts of man’s body. Two 
or three of the stalks with leaves put into wine, especially 
claret, are known to quicken the spirits and drive away melan- 
choly. It is a special herb against infection, the juice being 
taken in some drink, and the party laid to sweat. It has also 
astringent properties, and will stop flows of blood or humours, 
staunch bleeding inward or outward, women’s too abundant 
courses, the whites, and chlorotic belchings of the stomach. 
It is a good herb for all sorts of wounds both of the head and 
the body, either inward or outward, used either in juice or 
decoction, or by powder of the root, or distilled, or made into 
an ointment.’”? We cannot endorse all that, especially as, 
while reading over the book from which we quote (Robinson’s 
Family Herbal), we see the same sanguine descriptions given of 
most of the plants. But that itis a valuable medicine other and 
more recent writers affirm. It grows in gardens and wild 
—the latter is the best. It can be identified by its large 
wing-shaped leaves, notched at the edges, of a brownish-green 
colour on the upper side, and greyish under. The stalks are 
