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Show MUGWORT. 691 dered, was given four times a day, by Dr. Home, to a woman who had been affected with hysteric fits for many years. ‘The fits ceased in a few days. In this patient assafcetida and xther had been given to no purpose. Moxa is a substance prepared in Japan from the dried tops and leaves of mugwort™, by beating and rubbing them betwixt the hands till only the { ine internal Januginous fibres remain, which are then combed and formed into little cones. These, used as cauteries, are greatly celebrated in eastern countries for preventing and curing many disorders +; but chronic rheumatisms, gouty, and some other painful affections of the joints, seem to be the chief complaints for which they can be rationally employed. The manner of applying the moxa is very simple: the part affected being previously moistened, a cone of the moxa is laid, which being set onfire at the apex, gradually burns down MUGWORT. ARTEMISIA VULGARIS. a Class XIX. Syngenesia. Essent. GEN. Cuan. Src. Cuar. Same Order 11. Polygamia superflua. the last. Leaves pinnatifid, flat, incised, beneath tomentose: Racemes simple, recurved: Five florets in the ray. to the skin, where it produces a dark-coloured spot: by repeat ing the process several times, an eschar is formed of any desired extent, and this on separation leaves an uleer, which is kept open or healed up as circumstances may require. It is said that the use of the moxa was originally introduced by the Jesuits +; but it is probablyof still greater antiquity. From remote times it has been the practice to cauterize the af. fected parts by various means. Hippocrates for this purpose not only used iron but flax, also a species of fungus §; and the Laplanders still prefer the agaric (Boletus igniarius), which they prepare and usé in a similar way as the Japanese do their moxa l|- DESCRIPTION. 7a : , aM ivided intd HEStalk rises three feet. The leaves are deeply dividec several segments, ’ which are I pointed,> on the upper side of a deep ,; green, and on the under downy, or covered with a cotton-like substance. Flowers small, purplish, in spikes, alternate, from the ale of the leaves, which here appear halbert-shaped. HISTORY, Native of Britain, flowers from August to September. MEDICAL VIRTUE. in somecountries it is used as a culinary aromatic. A decoc= es . tion of it is taken by the common people to cure the. ague-% Th é€ a a : e Frosh Chinese make use of it in healing wounds, applying the fres } : Fy AVES plant bruised.—Osbeck, i.: 394. A drachmof the leaves, pov Ve The Algyptians produced the same effects by means ofcotton or linen cloth €; and in Spain a moxa is prepared from a spe cies of the echinops. ener * This, however, is not the species of artemisia from which the eastern tnoxa is made; but that prepared fromthis plant in Germany was found to answer very well. See Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. 3. A. 7-8. App. 141. It has also been made from the down of ver cum, + For afull account of these see Kempfer, Amen, Exot. p- 502, &c. Also abbé Grosier ( Hist. of China), from whom it appears that mirrors of ice or metal were used for the purpese o iting the moxa; and that the ancient Chinese made aper, and a kindof cloth, of the downofartemisia t V Observations Curieuses, tom, ii. p. 114. § Lib. de Affect. ¢ ). | Harmens and Fiellstrom Diss. Med. Lapp. in Hall, Collect. Diss, Pract, tom. vi. p, 728, < Prosper Alpinus, lib. iil, c. 12. p. 209 2x2 |