285.  Valeriana officinalis.  Valerian.  Root.  L. E. D.—­Valerian is a medicine of great use in nervous disorders, and is particularly serviceable in epilepsies proceeding from a debility in the nervous system.  It was first brought into esteem in these cases by Fabius Columna, who by taking the powdered root, in the dose of half a spoonful, was cured of an inveterate epilepsy after many other medicines had been tried in vain.  Repeated experience has since confirmed its efficacy in this disorder; and the present practice lays considerable stress upon it.

286.  Veratrum album.  White hellebore.  Root.  L. E. D.-The root has a nauseous, bitterish, acrid taste, burning the mouth and fauces:  wounded when fresh, it emits an extremely acrimonious juice, which mixed with the blood, by a wound, is said to prove very dangerous:  the powder of the dry root, applied to an issue, occasions violent purging:  snuffed up the nose, it proves a strong, and not always a safe, sternutatory.  This root, taken internally, acts with extreme violence as an emetic, and has been observed, even in a small dose, to occasion convulsions and other terrible disorders.  The ancients sometimes employed it in very obstinate cases, and always made this their last resource.

Similar Plant.—­Gentiana lutea, which see.

287.  Veronica Beccabunga.  Brooklime.  Herb.  L. D.—­This plant was formerly considered of great use in several diseases, and was applied externally to wounds and ulcers; but if it have any peculiar efficacy, it is to be derived from its antiscorbutic virtue.

As a mild refrigerant juice, it is preferred where an acrimonious state of the fluids prevails, indicated by prurient eruptions upon the skin, or in what has been called the hot scurvy.—­Woodville’s Med.  Bot. 364.

288.  Vitis vinifera.  Grape Vine.  Raisins and different Wines.  L. E.—­ These are to cheer the spirits, warm the habit, promote perspiration, render the vessels full and turgid, raise the pulse, and quicken the circulation.  The effects of the full-bodied wines are much more durable than those of the thinner; all sweet wines, as Canary, abound with a glutinous nutritious substance; whilst the others are not nutrimental, or only accidentally so by strengthening the organs employed in digestion:  sweet wines in general do not pass off freely by urine, and heat the constitution more than an equal quantity of any other, though containing full as much spirit:  red port, and most of the red wines, have an astringent quality, by which they strengthen the tone of the stomach and intestines, and thus prove serviceable for restraining immoderate secretions:  those which are of an acid nature, as Renish, pass freely by the kidneys, and gently loosen the belly:  it is supposed that these last exasperate, or occasion gout and calculous disorders, and that new wines of every kind have this effect.