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FAMILY HERBAL

431

Stimulant—mode of cxliib. A water distilled from it, find an essentialoil: The latter sinks ifl water; the iormer serves most of the purposesof waters drawn from more costly spices.

Pink, Carolina: This root is celebrated for the expulsion of worms fromthe alimentary canal; it sometimes acts unpleasantly on the nervoussystem. Some order it in doses of ten or fifteen grains, while othersadvise it in doses of a drachm, alleging that bad effects more readilyhappen from small doses, as the large dose generally purges or pukes;hence we do not recommend this medicine in domestic practice.

Pitch, Burgundy : The resin exuding from the common fir-tree, softenedin warm water, and strained—-med. virt. Stimulant-—mode of exhib.In plasters and ointments.

Pomegranate Tree: A prickly tree or shrub growing in the south ofEurope—part used, The flowers and rind of the fruit—sens. prop.Flowers and rind, astringent; fruit, tart and roughish—-med. virt.Tonic, cooling—-mode of exhib. Juice of the fruit; infusion and de-coction of the flowers and rind. Against prolapsed rectum and uterus.Sydenham directs the application of a fomentation to be made of anounce of the rind of pomegranate bruised, with two pints of decoctionof oak. bark and half a pint of red wine. In colliquative diarrhceas,accompanying hectic fever, Dr. Mead directed the following astringentand nutritive decoction: Take of dried red rose leaves, balustines,pomegranate rind, and cinnamon, of each one drachm; boil in a pintof cow's milk, adding little by little, during the boiling, a pint ofwater: Keep it on the fire till the whole is reduced to one pint; thenstrain off, and sweeten with a little sugar. To be taken in repeateddraughts in the course of a-day.

Poppy, Red, or Corn Rose: The flowers are very common in corn-fields,they are weakly sedative; a syrup is prepared from them : Its virtuesare considerable.

Poppy, White : A plant cultivated in gardens. The heads or seed-ves-sels afford a bitter milky juice, which, in a concrete form, is opium—med. virt. Anodyne, sedative. Of the expressed decoction, by the ad-dition of sugar, an useful syrup is formed. Of the decoction, stronglyexpressed and evaporated, an extract is formed, more pure than theopium that is imported.

Prunes, Common, or French Prunes: The fruit of a kind <>f garden plum-tree growing in France-—med. virt. Laxative, cooling; eaten crudeor stewed.

Quassia-Root: The woody root of a tree growing in Surinam—sens.prop. Intensely bitter—med. virt. Tonic, stomachic, a corrector ofputrid bile—mode of exhib. Infusion ; extract. It is much used inthis country as a succedaueum for hops, to give bitterness to maltliquor, though it deservedly subjects those brewers who employ it to avery heavy penalty. Strong bitters are very properly exhibited asmedicines in intermittent and bilious fevers, in some stomachic com-plaints, in cachexy, dropsy, and gout; but there is sufficient evidenceto prove, that the long-continued or habitual use of this class ofremedies has been productive of incalculable mischief.

Quince: The fruit of a tree cultivated in gardens. The tipple of the

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