Copy 1

The London dispensatory / By Anthony Todd Thomson.

  • Anthony Todd Thomson
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The London dispensatory / By Anthony Todd Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    180/944 (page 44)
    The roots are fit to be taken up for medicinal use in July or August, and continue so till spring. | Quatitves. They have a slightly aromatic odour, and a swectish taste with some degree of warmth. By distillation a small portion of essential oil is obtained from them, and they have been made to yield sugar. Medical properties und uses. Parsley roots were formerly supposed to possess diuretic properties ; ‘but these, if they exist, are too slight to deserve attention, They have been given in nephritis, and hydrothorax, and generally in the form of decoction; in which case, if their virtue depends, as we are inclined to believe, on the essential oil, they become still more inert as it is dissipated during the boiliug. ARBUTUS, Spec. Plant. Willd. 1. 616. Cl. 10. Ord. 1. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Bicornes Linn, Brice Juss. G. 871. Cal five-parted. Corolla ovate, the mouth pellucid at the base, Berry five-celled. Spec 7. Arbutus Uva Urst.. Trailing Arbutus or Bearberry. Med. Bot. 2d edit. 287. t. 100. Smith's Fiora Britan. i. 403. Officinal. Uv % Ursi Fouia. Lond. Dubs—— Foiium. Edin. Leaves of Uva Ursi or Bearberry. This shrub, a native of the north of Europe, is found grow- ing wild on the heathy mountains of Scotland, flowering in June. It is a low shrub, with the branches nearly procum- bent, and trailing; woody, and ithe bark smooth. The leaves are not unlike those of the myrtle, firm and evergreen, alter- nate, obovate, or wedge-shaped, on short petioles ; with a net-work of yeins on the under surface, which is pale green, whilst the upper is of a very deep green colour, and glossy. The flowers terminate the shoots in small clusters, each sup- ported on a red pedice}. The calyx is small, and obtusely five- toothed; the corolla tubular, oval, flesh- Solanned, or whitish with a red lip, divided at the margin into five minute, obtuse refiex segments; containing ten short, downy filaments crown- ed with erect reddish anthers; and an oval germen, bearing a style longer than the anthers, with a simple stigma. The fruit is a smal], round, smooth, glossy, red berry, witha de- pressed umbilicus, five-celled, of an austere taste, and con- taining five angular seeds. The plant should be procured in autumn ; and ** the green Teaves alone selected and picked from the twigs, and dried by a moderate exposure to heat ?.”’ Qualities. ‘The fresh leaves are inodorous, and have a | » Cases of Pulmonary Consumption, &c. healed with Uva Ursi, by nes Bourne, M.D., 8vo., Lond. 1806.