PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

beverage made of whisky, known as mint julep. This should be madeby inverting in the sweetened diluted whisky a small bunch of youngmint sprouts, thus getting the delicate aroma of the leaves, but not thebitterness of the broken stems.

MENTHA VIRIDIS

Spearmint is common throughout Europe, Asia, and North Amer-ica, and, escaping from cultivation, is found wild throughout most ofthe temperate regions of the world. Parkinson, 1640, speaks of it asa garden plant only (492), and its mention in early mediseval lists ofplants demonstrates that it was cultivated in the convent gardens ofthe ninth Century. Turner's Herball (656), 1568, calls it Spere Mynte.Its use is largely that of a domestic and populär flavor in confectioneryand as a perfume. In the form of an aromatic tea it has been a greatfavorite in domestic medicine, as is true also of its harsher relative,peppermint.

MEZEREUM

Daphne mezereum is an acrid shrub familiär to persons con-versant with domestic medicine in mediarral English times, being em-ployed by the herbalists, and also, somewhat, by the medical professionof that day. It was recognized in Culpeper (175) as an acrid sub-stance, generally applied externally, although it was given internallyin dropsy and some other affections, about a dram of the dried barkof the tree being mixed with three parts of water, and taken inter-nally. Hooper (325) in his Medical Dictionary states that a prevailingmethod of preparation was to macerate thin slices of the bark of thefresh root in vinegar and apply it externally.. In Stephenson andChurchüTs Medical Botany (614a) a Mr. Pierson serves as authorityfor a Dr. Rüssel, who, as did Mr. Pierson, reviewed the uses of thedrug as a Substitute for mercury and as an application in scrofulousand cutaneous affections, but with decided Opposition to its use, on ac-count of its exceeding acridity, a refreshing innovation in former or-thodox medication. This imported, disagreeable drug crept into theUnited States Pharmacopeia and American practice by reason of thefact that it was made a constituent of the Compound Syrup of Sarsa-parilla.

MOSCHUS

Musk, Moschus moschiferus, was described by Aerius (6), wholived about the middle of the sixth Century A. D. Benjamin de Tudela(55a), who traveled through the East about 1160-1173 A.D., alsomentions musk, stating that its native home is in Thibet. Its sale inEgypt was mentioned by Leo Africanus (378b), 1526. Its introduc-tion to medicine, however, came at a much earlier period, its employ-ment in that direction following the commendation of Aetius (6). Itstherapeutic use was due to its introduction from the Arabians. Taver-nier (1676), asserted (627) by Eugene Rimmel (552) to be the firstEuropean traveler to mention this drug, reports that he bought 7,673

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