The ripe fruit of grapes, of which there are several kinds, properly cured and dried, are the raisins and currants of the shops:  the juice of these also, by fermentation, affords wine as well as vinegar and tartar.

The medical use of raisins is, their imparting a very pleasant flavour both to aqueous and spiritous menstrua.  The seeds or stones are supposed to give a disagreeable relish, and hence are generally directed to be taken out:  nevertheless I have not found that they have any disagreeable taste.—­Lewis’s Mat.  Med.

289.  Ulmus campestris.  Elm.  Bark.  L. E. D.—­The leaves have a bitterish astringent taste, and are recommended in powder, to the extent of at least two drams a-day, in ulcerations of the urinary passages and catarrhus vesicae.  The powder has been used with opium, the latter being gradually increased to a considerable quantity, in diabetes, and it is said with advantage.  Some use it for alleviating the dyspeptic symptoms in nephritic calculous ailments.—­Lewis’s Mat.  Med.

290.  Rhododendron Chrysanthemum.  Yellow-flowered Rho-DODENDRON.  E. The Leaves.—­This species of Rhododendron has lately been introduced into Britain:  it is a native of Siberia, affecting mountainous situations, and flowering in June and July.

Little attention was paid to this remedy till the year 1779, when it was strongly recommended by Koelpin as an efficacious medicine, not only in rheumatism and gout, but even in venereal cases; and it is now very generally employed in chronic rheumatisms in various parts of Europe.  The leaves, which are the part directed for medicinal use, have a bitterish subastringent taste, and, as well as the bark and young branches, manifest a degree of acrimony.  Taken in large doses they prove a narcotic poison, producing those symptoms which we have described as occasioned by many of the order Solanaceae.

Dr. Home, who tried it unsuccessfully in some cases of acute rheumatism, says, it appears to be one of the most powerful sedatives which we have, as in most of the trials it made the pulse remarkably slow, and, in one patient, reduced it 38 beats.  And in other cases in which the Rhododendron has been used at Edinburgh, it has been productive of good effects; and, accordingly, it is now introduced into the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia.

The manner of using this plant by the Siberians was, by putting two drams of the dried leaves in an earthen-pot with about ten ounces of boiling-water, keeping it near a boiling heat for a night, and this they took in the morning; and by repeating it three or four times it generally affected a cure.  It is said to occasion heat, thirst, a degree of delirium, and a peculiar sensation of the parts affected.—­ Woodville’s Med.  Bot. p. 239.

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Sect.  VIII.—­Medicinal plants not contained in either of the British DISPENSATORIES.