EX PECTORANTS. 89 
be prepared with cold water, two or three ounces ; of the fluid 
extract a drachm ; and of the syrup half a fluid ounce. 
LIQUORICE ROOT (Grycyrruiza GLABRA). 
The liquorice plant has a perennial root, which is round, 
succulent, tough, and pliable, furnished with sparse fibres ; 
rapid in its growth, and in a sandy soil penetrates deeply into 
the ground. The stems are herbacous, erect, and usually four 
or five feet from the ground, have few branches, and are 
garnished with alternate pinnate or feather-shaped leaves, 
consisting of several pairs of elliptic-shaped, blunt leaflets, 
with a single leaflet at the end, of a pale green colour, and 
clammy on their under surface. The flowers are violet or 
purple, formed like those of the pea, and arranged in auxiliary 
spikes supported on long peduncles. The fruit is a compressed 
one-celled pod, containing from one to six small kidney-shaped 
seeds. The plant is a native of the south of Europe, Barbary, 
Syria, and Persia, and is cultivated in England and the north 
of France and Germany. Liquorice root is an excellent 
demulcent, well adapted tocatarrhal affections, and to irritations 
of the mucous membrane of the bowels and urinary passages. 
It is best given in the form of a decoction, either alone or 
combined with other demulcents. It is frequently employed 
as an addition to the decoctions of acrid, irritating, and bitter 
vegetable substances, such, for example as the seneka and 
mezereon, the acrimony of which it covers, while it renders 
them more acceptable to the stomach. Before being used it 
shouid be deprived of its outside skin, which is somewhat 
acrid, without possessing the peculiar virtues of the root. The 
decoction may be prepared by boiling an ounce of the bruised 
root for a few minutes in a pint of water. By long boiling 
the acrid resinous principle is extracted. Perhaps, however, 
to this principle may in part be ascribed its virtues in chronic 
bronchial diseases. The powder is used in the preparation of 
pills, either to give due consistence or to cover their surface 
and prevent them from cohering, Used in some of our 
compounds. 
