Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A manual of pharmacy / By William Thomas Brande. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![From 100 parts of the dry herb, Hayne obtained Volatile oil? Bitter extract 4* Mucilage • 15*1 Bitter resin soluble in ether ..i 8'G Ditto insoluble in ether > 3'4 It also contains acetic acid, acetate of potassa, and sul- phate of lime. The aroma of wormwood depends upon essential oil, which may be obtained by distillation, 1 cwt. of the fresh herb yield- ing, upon an average, 4 ounces of oil. Wormwood is sometimes spoken of as an antispasmodic, and the older writers extol it as a vermifuge ^; but it deserves little attention at the present day in either of these characters. The French are fond of it as a stomachic, and spoil some of their excellent liqueurs with its flavour; and what our pub- licans sell under the name of purl^ is said to be ale seasoned with the tops of wormwood. Applied externally, infusion of wormwood has no advantage over warm water j it is not more discutient, and scarcely more antiseptic. If used internally, wormwood should be fresh ; and for this purpose 5ij. of the recent plant may be infused in a pint of boiling water for four hours, R Hujusce^infusi f^iss. Spirit. Cinnamomi f3ss. M. ft. haustu54tis vel 6tis horis sumendus. The ashes of wormwood afford by lixiviation a quantity of impure carbonate of potassa, which used to be called salt of wormwood. Officinal preparation. Extractum Abysynthii. ACACIA GUMMI—Gum Acacia, or, as it is vulgarly called, Gum Arabic, is a spontaneous exudation from the bark of the acacia vera-, a native of Africa. It is a low tree with a crooked stem, covered with a grey and purplish bark : the leaves are alternate, bipirmate, composed of several pairs of opposite pinnae, with a small gland on the common petiole, be- tween the base of each pair, and having numerous pairs of narrow, elli[)tical smooth leaflets. On each side of the base of the leaves are two long diverging white spines. The flowers are herma{)hrodite and male, crowded into globidar heads, rather than spikes, which are supported on slender peduncles, and rise four or five together from the axillaj of the leaves : the ' Ilencc the name worw/wjoor/, ])robal)ly a ciirrui.tioii {A'u'onntvor/. CI. '2.3. Ord. 1. Tolyganiia Monoccia. Nu.1. Ord, Loinentacc:i;, Lxnn, Lcgu- ininosa;, Juts, u 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21510246_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
