199.  Datura Stramonium.  Thorn apple.  The whole Plant.  E.—­Dr. Woodville informs us, that an extract of this plant has been the preparation usually employed, and from one to ten grains and upwards a-day:  but the powdered leaves after the manner of those directed for hemlock would seem, for the reason given, to be a preparation more certain and convenient.

It has been much celebrated as a medicine in epilepsy and convulsions and mania; but it is of a violent narcotic quality, and extremely dangerous in its effects.

Stramonium has been recommended, as being of considerable use in cases of asthma, on the authority of some eminent physicians of the East Indies; and the late Dr. Roxburgh has stated to me many instances wherein it had performed wonders in that dreadful malady.

The Datura Metal, Purple-flowered Thorn-apple, is much like the Stramonium, except in the flowers and the stalks being of a purple colour.  I have made particular inquiry of Dr. Roxburgh if any particular kind was used in preference, and he said not; that both the above sorts were used; and, in fact, not only these, but the Datura Tatula, another species which grows wild there, and is cultivated in our stoves for the sake of its beautiful flowers, is also used for the same purposes.

The mode of using it was by cutting the whole plant up after drying, and smoking it in a common tobacco-pipe; and which, in some cases in this country also, has given great ease in severe attacks; and I know several persons who use it with good effect to this day.  In vegetables of such powerful effects as this is known to have, great care ought to be taken in their preparation, which, I fear, is not always so much attended to as the nature of this subject requires [Footnote:  See Observations on and Directions for preparing and preserving Herbs in general, et the end of this section.].

200.  Daucus sylvestris.  Wild carrot.  The Seeds.  L.—­These seeds possess, though not in a very considerable degree, the aromatic qualities common to those of the umbelliferous plants, and hence have long been deemed carminative and emmenagogue; but they are chiefly esteemed for their diuretic powers, and for their utility in calculus and nephritic complaints, in which an infusion of three spoonfuls of the seeds in a pint of boiling water has been recommended; or the seeds may be fermented in malt liquor, which receives from them an agreeable flavour resembling that of the lemon-peel.—­Woodville’s Med.  Bot. p. 132.

Similar Plants.—­Sison Amonum; Daucus Carota.

201.  Daucus Carota.  Cultivated carrot.  The Roots.  L. E. D.—­The expressed juice, or a decoction of these roots, has been recommended in calculous complaints, and as a gargle for infants in aphtous affections or excoriations of the mouth; and a poultice of scraped carrots has been found an useful application to phagedenic ulcers, and to cancerous and putrid sores.