Volume 1

Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the Materia Medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh: accompanied with circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / by William Woodville, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

  • Woodville, William, 1752-1805.
Date:
1790-1793
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the Materia Medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh: accompanied with circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / by William Woodville, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    at the limb into five ihort fiegments : at the radius the florets are female, ufually five, fiat, fpreading, roundifh, cut at the apex into three teeth, and furnifhed with a cylindrical, greenifh, ftriated tube, which is about the length of the calyx : the filaments are five, ihort, and flender: the antherse are yellow, and unite into a cylindrical tube : the germen is oblong, compreffed, and fupports a filiform ftyle, divided into two reflexed ftigmata. It is common in dry paftures, and flowers from July till October. The leaves and flowers of this plant have an agreeable weak aromatic fmell, and a bitterifh, rough, and fomewhat pungent tafte. 14 The virtue of both is extracted by watery and fpirituous menftrua; the aftringency molt perfectly by the former ; their aromatic warmth and pungency by the latter; and both of them equally by a mixture of the two. The flowers, diflilled with water, yield a penetrating effen- tial oil, poffeffing the flavour of the Milfoil in perfection, though rather lefs agreeable than the flowers themfelves.” * This plant appears to be the 2r?*Ww || of the Greek writers, by whom it was efteemed an excellent vulnerary f and ftyptic, and was generally employed internally as an ufeful aftringent in all hsemorrhagic complaints. Inftances of its good effeCts in this wayb are likewife mentioned by feveral of the German phyficians, particu- larly, by Stahl and Hoffman, who alfo recommend it as an efficacious remedy in various other difeafes: the former found it not only an aftrin- gent, but alfo a powerful tonic, antifpafmodic, and fedative. In proof of the laft mentioned quality, we may remark, that in fome parts of Sweden it is ufed in making beer, in order to render it more in- toxicating ; and Sparrman has obferved, that it is employed for this purpofe in fome parts of Africa. The leaves and flowers of Milfoil are both directed for medicinal ufe in the Edinburgh Pharm. in the prefent practice however this plant, we believe, is wrholly negleCted. * Vide Lewis’s M. M. p. 424. |] Vide Stratiotes, Mattbiol. in Dtofcorid. f Vulneraria infuper habetur Tub externo ufu, jam ab Achille, ut ferunt, fanatione vulnerum fubjedtorum fibi militum, audtorato. Murray App. Med. vol. i. p. 167. b Haemoptyfis, Epiftaxis, Menorrhagia, et Hasmorrhois. * Stahl Dijf. de Therap. pafji hypoc. Hoffman, De praft. rem. §. 18. d Vide Linn. Flor. Suec. p. 299. HYSSOPUS OFFICINALIS,