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Domestic Medicine : or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and simple Medicines
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above mentioned, had been confirmed by the testimony of many ac-curate observers.

The lichin is purely and to a high degree mucilaginous; butnotwithstanding this plant has been in great repute as a remedy bothas aliment and a medicine in pulmonary complaints, and as a restora-tive in tabes dorsalis, it was scarcely noticed in the medical practiceof this country until Drs. Crichton, Reece, and Regnault, latelyrecommended it to the public. We shall have reason to congratulateour readers, if future experience justify the high, we fear too flatter-ing encomiums they have bestowed upon it, as having effected a curein many cases of phthisis, which those gentlemen, and other writerson the continent, have adduced.

In order to obtain the virtues of the lichen islandicus, it must beinfused in boiling water, to separate all the earthy particles whichadhere to it, and to take off the bitterness which renders it disagree-able; after which it may be boiled in water, or milk, just as it is in-tended to employ the mucilage obtained in this manner either as foodor medicine. It may be rendered more or less agreeable by the ad-dition of honey or syrup.

To concentrate in some degree all the medicinal properties of theIceland moss, a jelly is directed to be formed, by boiling six ouncesof the lichen with three quarts of spring water for an hour ; pressthe boiling decoction through a fine hair sieve, and then put it oveia slow fire in a jelly-bason, and let it evaporate till it is reduced to apint; then add six ounces of refined sugar, and evaporate the mixturetill you have a pound of thick syrup, which, when cold, will assumethe consistence of a jelly. Four to six table-spoonsful of this prepa-ration is to be taken in the course of the day. As this anti-phthisicalremedy is pectoral, agglutinent, and demulcent, affording nutrimentand support without producing inordinate irritation, it may beusefully employed as an auxiliary to more powerful remedies,especially while the patient is taking, under the direction of skill andprudence, any preparation of the Foxglove.

Some have given the Iceland liverwort, or moss, in the form of adecoction, made by boiling an ounce and a half in a quart of milk,over a slow fire, exactly one quarter of an hour; the dose six oreight table spoonsful, to be taken frequently in the day. If the milkdisagree, water may be used in its stead; but care must be taken tobo;' it over a slow fire, and not more than fifteen minutes. Anothermedical practitioner directs two ounces of the herb (previously wash-ed in cold water) to be boiled with a little liquorice in a quart of wa-ter to a pint and a half: a tea-cupful may be taken three times aday.

The Icelanders and many of the Dutch physicians use this herbin a state of powder, which is prepared by carefully freeing it fromthe little sticks and green moss that is generally gathered with it; andafter being washed in cold water, re-dried in an oven gently heated,so as not to scorch it; then being ground, it must be passed throughe fine sieve to deprive it of its fibrous parts, which are insoluble, anddevoid of medicinal virtue. This farina may be taken in doses of a