Fart II.
Materia Medica.
§69
Off. —The inner bark.
Cortex interior ulmi campestris. Ed.
Ulmi cortex. Lond.
Ulmi cortex interior. Dub.
This tree grows wild in Britain. It flowers in April.The inner bark has a yellowish colour, and a mucilaginous,bitter, astringent taste, without smell.
In decoction it has been highly recommended in the lepraichthyosis, and has been said to cure dropsies, but it requiresa patient trial.
Lond.
3. Triandria Mo-
Valeriana officinalis. Ed. Dub.Valeriana officinalis (Sylvestris).Willd. g. 75, sp. 6. Smith, g. 15, sp.
nogynia ___Nat. ord. Aggregate.
Wild valerian.
Off.—The root.
Radix valerians officinalis. Ed.
Valerianae radix. Lond. Dub.
This plant is perennial, and vavies in its appearance andsensible qualities, according to the situation in which it grows.In marshes and shadowy places its leaves are broader, on dryheaths and high pastures they are narrower. The rootsproduced in low watery-grounds have a remarkably faintsmell in comparison with the others, and sometimes scarcelyany. The roots taken up in autumn or winter have alsomuch stronger sensible qualities than those collected in springand slimmer.
The root consists of a number of strings or fibres mattedtogether, issuing from one common head, of a whitish or palebrownish colour. Its smell is strong, like a mixture of aro-matics with fetids ; the taste unpleasantly warm, bitterish,and subacrid. Neumann got from 480 grains of the dryroot 186 alcoholic, and 74 watery extract; and inversely,261 watery and 5 alcoholic. The distilled alcohol was slight-ly, the water strongly, impregnated with the smell of the va-lerian, but no separable oil was obtained.
Medical use —Wild valerian is a medicine of great use innervous disorders, and is particularly serviceable in epilepsiesproceeding from a debility of the nervous system. Some re-commend it as procuring sleep, particularly in fever, evenwhen opium fails ; but it is principally useful in affections ofthe hysterical kind.
The common dose is from a scruple to a drachm in pow-