280

Materia Medica.

TAKTlIr

fants which occasions green stools and aphthae. 1 The suet,which is the officinal part of the animal, is chiefly obtained fromabout the kidneys and loins. >

Qualities. — Suet is the most consistent of the real animalfats. It is white, has some degree of brittleness; is inodorous,and requires a temperature of 127° Fahrenheit to melt it. Inother respects, it agrees with the other animal fats. (See thequalities of fat under Sus scrofa.)

Medical properties and uses. —Like the other fats, suet isemollient. It is sometimes boiled in milk in the proportionof %i) of the suet to Oj of milk; and a cupful of the mixturegiven occasionally in chronic diarrhoea, when there is muchacrimony of the contents of the bowels; but its principal use isto give consistence to ointments and plasters.

Officinal preparation. Sevum prceparatum. L.

OVUM. See Phasianus.

OXALIS.* Spec. Plant. Mild. ii. 772.CI. 10. Ord.S. Decandria Pentagynia. Nat.ord. Gruinales Linn.

Gerania Jass.G. 918. Calyx five-leaved. Petals connected by claws. Stamens

unequal, the five shorter exterior ones connected at the base.

Capsules opening at the corners, five-cornered.*** leaves ternate, scape one-flowered.Species 25. O. Acelosella. Wood-sorrel. Med. Bot. 2d edit. 563.

t. 201. Smith Flor. Brit. 491. Jacquin's Oxalis, 114. t. 80. f. 1.Officinal. Acetosella. Lond. Wood-sorrel.

Syn. OseilledesBucherons [P.) Sauerhlee (G.) Acctosasal/aiica (7.) Oxalide arc-aeriUa (S.)

This is an indigenous perennial plant, found in woods, underhedges and other shaded places, and flowering in April and May.The root is horizontal, toothed, fleshy, and of a reddish co-lour. The leaves are all radical, ternate like the trefoil, andpetioled; with the leaflets obcordate, very entire, hairy, of ayellowish green colour, and purplish underneath. The scapeor flower-stalk is furnished with two scaly bractes, placed aboutan inch and a half beneath the flower, which is sub-nutant, de-licate, and of a flesh colour streaked with red. The calycineleaflets are oblong, oval, acute, ciliated, and purple at the tip.The corolla is bell-shaped: with the claws of the petals up-right, and the borders obovate, rounded, and spreading: thefilaments are somewhat connate at the base, and furnished withoblong incumbent anthers; and the styles smooth, rising froman ovate germen. The capsule is membranous, and containstwo seeds in every cell. Each seed is invested with a fleshy

1 The milk of the ewe is seldom used either as aliment or medicine. Ii rontaius morecream and les» whey than cow's milk, but the butter yielded by it never acquires a projicrconsistence. It is made into cheese in Scotland, which is bitterish ; and when old warm&ud biting. It resembles Parmesan cheese.

1 0%xXii Dioscoridis.