OCR Text |
Show COMMON MEADOW COMMON MEADOW SAFFRON. SAFFRON. of summer. Thesensible qualities of the fresh root are very various, according to the place of growth, and season of the year. In autumn it is inert; in the beginning of summer, highly colconformably to the practice of Stoerck, directs an oxymel dif, however r, thelatte ; chici, and that of Edinburgh asyrup honey. of instead sugar using fers from the formeronlyin acrid: some have foundit to be a corrosive poison; others say they have eaten it in considerable quantity without experiencing any effect. Whenit is possessed of acrimony, this is of the same nature with that of garlic, and is entirely destroyed by drying. MEDICAL VIRTUES. Stoerck, Collin, and Plenk, have celebrated its virtues as a diuretic in hydrothorax and other drojsies. But it is at best a very uncertain remedy. ‘lhe expressed juice is used in Alsace to destroy verminin the hair. Fromvarious observations on the effects of colchicum made by baron Stoerck, and especially upon the infusion of three grains of the fresh root in four ounces of wine, he remarked that its diuretic power was very considerable, and therefore concluded that if its deleterious acrimony were destroyed, it might prove in this character an efficacious medicine: accordingly he digested an ounceof the recent root, sliced, in a pound of vinegar for forty-eight hours with a gentle heat ; the vinegar being then strained, it provéd acrid to the taste, constringed and irtitated the fauces, and excited a slight cough; to obviate which he mixed the vinegar with twice its weight of honey, and gently boiled it down to the consistence of honey, forming an oxymel sufficiently grateful; and which, taken in doses of a drachm, promoted a copious discharge of urine, without producing any inconvenience from its acrimony, though it moderately stimulated the fauces, and absterged the macus. Thus, like the squill, it was found both expectorant and diuretic; and the successful use of this medicine, in various hydropic disorders in the hospital at Vienna, equalled the baron’s utmost expectations. He recommends, at first, a drachm of the oxymel to begiven twice a day in anysuitable vehicle, and gradually to increase the dose to an ounce or more ina day. Many other practitioners, who employed the oxymel colchici in these complaints, also experienced its good effects, especially in Germany and France, whereit continues to be a favourite medicine: in England, however, the colchicum has been less successful, and is very gene- rally thought a Jess efficacious diuretic than the squill, which excels it still more as an expectorant. The London college, 363 PREPARATION. E.) Syrup or Corcuicum. (Syrupus Colchici Autumnalis. ounce; Take of colchicumraot, fresh, cut into thin slices, one vinegar, sixteen ounces ; double refined sugar, twenty-six ounces: nally shaking Macerate the root in the vinegar two days, occasio sion. To the vessel;2 then strain the infusion with gentle expres so as to little, a the strained infusion add the sugar, and boil form a syrup. the colchicum. This syrup seems to be the best preparation of season ; proper the in root this We must take care to gather uncerthe e ascrib to are we ular and fromerrors in this partic It shops. the in found as ne medici this ainty in the effects of from a drachm is chiefly employed as a diuretic, and maybe taken more, or two to the extent of an ounce, or D.) Oxymet or MeavowSarrron. (Oxymel Colchici. L. slicgs, thin Takeof the fresh root of meadowsaffron, cut into one ounce ; __——. distilled vinegar, one pint; clarified honey, two pounds by weight: in a glass Macerate the root of meadowsaffron with the vinegar hours. vessel, with a gentle heat, for forty-eight Strain theli- and add the honey. quor, pressed out strongly from the root, g it with a w ooden Lastly, boil the mixture, frequently stirrin an active preparaspoon, to the thickness of asyrup. This is by the syrup of the tion, but its use may be entirely superseded an ounce. same root. The dose given is a drachm to half |