From time immemorial, the Verbascum thapsus, or great mullein, has been a trusted popular remedy, in Ireland, for the treatment of the above formidable malady.  It is a wild plant—­most persons would call it a weed—­found in many parts of the United Kingdom; and, according to Sowerby’s British Botany, vol. vi., page 110, is “rather sparingly distributed over England and the south of Scotland.”  In most parts of Ireland, however, in addition to growing wild it is carefully cultivated in gardens, and occasionally on a rather extensive scale; and this is done wholly and solely in obedience to a steady popular call for the herb by phthisical sufferers.  Constantly, in Irish newspapers, there are advertisements offering it for sale; and there are, in this city, pharmaceutical establishments of the first rank in which it can be bought.  Still it does not appear in the Pharmacopoeia; nor, as far as I know, has its use received the official sanction of the medical profession.  Some friends with whom I talked over the matter at the Pharmaceutical Conference at Southampton last August, suggested that it would be desirable to make a therapeutical research into the powers of this drug, and ascertain by actual experiment its efficacy or otherwise.  Having partially accomplished this, I am anxious to very briefly set forth what has been done, in order that others may be induced to co-operate in the work.

“There are five mulleins, all belonging to the parent order of the Scrophulariaceae; but the old Irish remedy is the great mullein, or Verbascum thapsus, a faithful delineation of which will be found in Plate 1, 437, vol. vi., of Sowerby.  It is a hardy biennial, with a thick stalk, from eighteen inches to four feet high, and with very peculiar large woolly and mucilaginous leaves, and a long flower spike with ugly yellow and nearly sessile flowers.  The leaves are best gathered in late summer or autumn, shortly before the plant flowers.  In former times it appears to have been rather highly thought of, particularly as a remedy for diarrhoea; and Dioscorides, Culpepper, and Gerarde favorably allude to it.

“Having been furnished with a good supply of fresh mullein from a garden near this city, where it is extensively grown, I commenced operations.  As it proved useful, subsequent supplies were procured from our drug-contractor.

“The old Irish method of administering the mullein is to place an ounce of dried leaves, or a corresponding quantity of the fresh ones, in a pint of milk; to boil for ten minutes, and then to strain.  This strained fluid is given warm to the patient, with or without a little sugar.  It is administered twice a day; and the taste of the mixture is bland, mucilaginous, comforting to the praecordia, and not disagreeable.  I resolved to try this method, and also the watery infusion; and, moreover, the natural expressed juice fortified with glycerin.  This latter preparation was carefully made for me, from fresh mullein leaves, by Dr. John Evans, chemist to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.