202.  Delphinium Staphis Agria.  Staves Agria.  The Seeds.  L. D.—­ Stavesacre was employed by the ancients as a cathartic, but it operates with so much violence both upwards and downwards, that its internal use has been, among the generality of practitioners, for some time laid aside.  It is chiefly employed in external applications for some kinds of cutaneous eruptions; and for destroying lice and other insects; insomuch that it has from this virtue received its name in different languages, Herba pedicularis, Herbe aux poux, Lauskraut, Lousewort.

203.  Dianthus caryophyllus.  Clove-Pink.  The Petals.  E.—­These flowers are said to be cardiac and alexipharmac.  Simon Paulli relates, that he has cured many malignant fevers by the use of a de-coction of them; which he says powerfully promoted sweat and urine without greatly irritating nature, and also raised the spirits and quenched thirst.  The flowers are chiefly valued for their pleasant flavour, which is entirely lost even by light coction.  Lewis says, the College directed the syrup, which is the only officinal preparation of them, to be made by infusion.

204.  Digitalis purpurea.  Foxglove.  The Leaves.  L. E. D.—­The leaves of Foxglove have a nauseous taste, but no remarkable smell.  They have been long used externally to sores and scrophulous tumours with considerable advantage.  Its diuretic effects, for which it is now so deservedly received into the Materia Medica, were entirely overlooked.  To this discovery Dr. Withering has an undoubted claim; and the numerous cures of dropsy related by him and other practitioners of established reputation, afford incontestable proofs of its diuretic powers, and of its practical importance in the cure of those diseases.  The dose of dried leaves in powder is from one grain to three twice a-day; but if a liquid medicine be preferred, a dram of the dried leaves is to be infused for four hours in half a pint of boiling water, adding to the strained liquor an ounce of any spiritous water.  One ounce of this infusion given twice a-day is a medium dose; it is to be continued in these doses till it either acts upon the kidneys; the stomach, or the pulse, (which it has a remarkable power of lowering,) or the bowels.—­ Woodville’s Med.  Bot. p. 221.

This is now become a very popular medicine, but if used incautiously is attended with danger.  Medical practitioners should make themselves perfectly acquainted with this plant, as the leaves are the only part used; and their not being readilly discriminated when separated from the flowers, several accidents have occurred.  In the Gent.  Mag. for September 1815 is recorded a very extraordinary mistake, where the life of a child was sacrificed to the ignorance of a person who administered this instead of Coltsfoot; a plant so very dissimilar, that, had it not been well authenticated, I should not have believed the fact.