338 Materia Medica. — Hyssopus officinalis, part ii.

almost completely relinquished till the time of Baron Stoerek,he may be regarded as having introduced it. It may beemployed in all the cases in which the use of opium is indi-cated, where the latter disagrees with the habit, or where itsconstipating effect is wished to be avoided. In painful andspasmodic affections, hysteria, rheumatism, and gout, muchbenefit has resulted from its use; and we have found it parti-cularly serviceable when united with coloeynth, or otherpowerful cathartics, in colica pictonum. It is used externallyto lessen and allay the irritation of very sensible parts: hencefomentations of the leaves have been found serviceable-in scro-phulous and cancerous ulcers, haemorrhoids, and other painfulswellings; and Hufeland recommends the leaves and marsh-mallow flowers boiled in milk, with the addition of a few grainsof acetate of lead, as a topical application in scrophulous oph-thalmia. Smoking the leaves, like tobacco, is said to allay thepain of tooth-ach. Its effects in dilating the pupil, when aninfusion of it is dropped into the eye, are similar to those of' Belladonna, and hence it is also employed as a preparative tothe operation for cataract. It is used, generally, in the formsof extract and tincture only.

Officinal preparations. Extractum Hyoscyami, L. E. D. TinciumHyoscyami, L. E. D.

HYSSOPUS, Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 47.CI. 14. Orel. 1. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. md. Verticillatae,

Linn. Labiatse, Juss.G. 1096. Corolla, lower lip three-parted, with a small intermediate

subcrenate segment. Stamens straight, distant.Species 1. H. officinalis. Common Hyssop. Med. Bot. 2d ed. 318.

t. 113.Officinal. Hyssopi officinalis herba, Edin. Hyssopus; foiia,

Duo. The herbaceous part and leaves of Hyssop.

Syn. Hyssope (F.), Isop(G.), Isopo (/.', Hysopo (S.). Zufaiy yeabus {Arab. )

This is a perennial plant, a native of Siberia and Austria;cultivated in our gardens 1 , and flowering from June to Sep-tember. The root is knobbed, woody, and fibrous : the stalkabout two feet in height, obscurely quadrangular, erect, shrubby,and branching. The leaves do not exceed an inch in length,and one-third of an inch in breadth, are sessile, of a somewhatglaucous deep green colour, elliptical, entire, punctured, andstand in pairs.. The flowers are produced on one side, in longhalf-verticillated terminal spikes, and intermixed with leaves.The calyx is persistent, nearly tubular, divided at the edgeinto five acute teeth, striated, and of a purplish colour at first,but afterwards green : the corolla is violet-coloured, with a

' It was first cultivated in England by Gerarde in 1596. It is not the esof of theHebrews, nor the vaawiros of the Greeks. It has been supposed to be the rife orct/fi of the Arabiaw. Alton's Mat, Med, ii. 152.