02 THE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY HERB DOCTOR, 
parts of powdered myrrh, ginger, and slippery elm one tea- 
spoonful taken in milk, We have prescribed this with good 
results. One of our customers declares that he has recommended 
many to come for our tincture of myrrh, and that it has cured 
them of liver complaints, There can be no question but it 
is a good medicine. 
AUSTRALIAN BLUE GUM (Evcatyrrus Grozvtvs), 
Although not put down in the text-books as an antiseptic, 
yet it has this property. A doctor in one of the London hospitals 
reports the case of a man with gangrene of the lungs. His 
breath was simply horrible. Various remedies were tried in 
vain. The fluid extract of the leaves was given him in 30 drop 
doses four times a day. The improvement was soon manifest, 
and recovery complete. It has been successfully used in 
typhoid and other fevers of a putrid nature. It is also an 
astringent. Many are the cures related to us by old colonials 
of diarrhoea and fluxes of the bowels. The leaves, 
chopped and simmered in lard, make an ointment for sores, 
also rubbed in for rheumatic pains; although for this purpose, 
the best way is to bruise, boil, and apply the leaves hot as a 
poultice to the parts affected. The essential oil is an excellent 
rubificant (liniment). In the last-named complaint it is 
largely used as such. The redistilled oil is now used as acure 
for colds, five to ten drops on sugar three or four times 
a day is the best way to take it. Inhaling it is also good for 
colds in the head ; put 10 to 20 drops in a cup, fill up with hot 
water, hold the head over the steam and draw it into the mouth 
and nose, about twice a day will be sufficient. Mixed with 
linseed meal the powdered leaves make a good poultice for 
bad-smelling sores ; proportion, three of the linseed meal to one 
of the powdered leaves. Happy for us we are not troubled 
with malarial fevers as they are in America and other places, 
but in any infected district it is reasonably asserted the 
blue-gum, if largely cultivated, would prevent this trouble. 
Altogether it is a valuable tree, not only as a medicine, 
but also for its enduring timber. Experiments may further 
