ping-cough after the first
feverish stage, or any similar hacking, spasmodic cough. A
tincture is made (H.) from the whole plant with spirit of wine, and
this proves most useful for clearing obscuration of the sight, when
there is a sense, especially in the open-air, of a white vibrating
mist before the eyes; and therefore it has been given with marked
success in early stages of amaurotic paralysis of the retina. The
dose should be three or four drops of the tincture with a
tablespoonful of cold water three times in the day for a week at a
time.

[60] BORAGE.

The Borage, with its gallant blue flower, is cultivated in our
gardens as a pot herb, and is associated in our minds with bees and
claret cup. It grows wild in abundance on open plains where the
soil is favourable, and it has a long-established reputation for
cheering the spirits. Botanically, it is the _Borago officinalis_, this
title being a corruption of _cor-ago_, i.e., _cor_, the heart, _ago_,
I stimulate--_quia cordis affectibus medetur_, because it cures weak
conditions of the heart. An old Latin adage says: _Borago ego
gaudia semper ago_--"I, Borage, bring always courage"; or the
name may be derived from the Celtic, _Borrach_, "a noble
person." This plant was the Bugloss of the older botanists, and it
corresponds to our Common Bugloss, so called from the shape and
bristly surface of its leaves, which resemble _bous-glossa_, the
tongue of an ox. Chemically, the plant Borage contains potassium
and calcium combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords
thirty per cent., and the dried herb three per cent. of nitrate of
potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which,
when boiled and cooled, likewise deposits nitre and common salt.
These crystals, when ignited, will burn with a succession of small
sparkling explosions, to the great delight of the schoolboy. And it
is to such saline qualities the wholesome, invigorating effects and
the specially refreshing properties of the Borage are supposed to
be mainly due. For which reason, the plant, "when taken in
sallets," as says an old herbalist, "doth exhilarate, and make the
mind glad," almost in the same way as a bracing sojourn by the
seaside during an autumn holiday. The flowers possess cordial
virtues which are very revivifying, and have been much commended
against melancholic depression of the nervous system. Burton,
in his [61] _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1676), wrote with reference