The Materia Medicä.

27

an eartby, hat not difagreeable, fmell ; (Jlßon Mat. Med.)to be ccllecled in autamn. (Ph. Dan.) The roqt ofßemaleFern, or common Brakes, is fingle and very long, feldom of afinger's thlcknefs, yet fpreading much by lateral fhoots ; ofa black colour without, fpotted within. (Alßon.) It is whitewithin, and fhews, when cat throagh obliquely, or tranverfe-ly, the appearance of a tvvo-headed eagle. [Jüan Hiß. Plant.)The tafle is vifcid, bitterifh, and more difagreeable than theformer. (Jl/lon.) The root of female fern, fhe%ing, whencut throagh, an eagle, is commonly kept in the fhops inGermsny. Walbaum Index Pharm.

The root of both forte has been recommended as anthel-minthic, frorn the time of Galen, or earlier, to the prefent.Galen direös £iv of either (Pteris, or Thelypteris) as a dofelor the broad wprms. Andry (vvho ufed the female) fays adofe of jii or 5Ü1 will kill, bat not expel, the tssnia, there-fore he gives a pargative the day after ; if it does not fac-ceed the fiLrft time, the dofe is repeated every other day, forthree or foar times, conftantiy giving a purgative on the in-termediate days. Ar.(lry Gener. des Vers.

The root of one or other fpecies has been the bafis of feve-ral fecret medicines agajnft worms. The male was that ofthewidowofa Swifs furgeqn", named Nmffer, whofe fecretWas parchafed by the hing of France ; and her method ofgiving it, publifned by his order in 1775, has been tranflated

fmce bv Dr. Si,

to which we rauft refer the reader.

Foeniculum