ind help, if God will."

CHRISTMAS ROSE--BLACK HELLEBORE.

This well-known plant, a native of Southern Europe, and belonging
to the Ranunculus order, is grown commonly in our gardens
for the sake of its showy white flowers, conspicuous in winter,
from December to February. The root has been famous since
time immemorial as a remedy for insanity. From its abundant
growth in the Grecian island of Anticyra arose the proverb:
_Naviget Anticyram_--"Take a voyage to Anticyra," as applied
by way of advice to a man who has lost his reason.

When fresh the root is very acrid, and will blister the skin. If dried
and given as powder it will cause vomiting and purging, also
provoking sneezing when smelt, and inducing the monthly flow of
a woman. This root contains a chemical glucoside--"helleborin,"
which, if given in full doses, stimulates the kidneys to such an
excess that their function becomes temporarily paralyzed. It
therefore happens that a medicinal tincture (H.) made from the
fresh root collected at Christmas, just before the plant would
flower, when [108] taken in small doses, will promptly relieve
dropsy, especially a sudden dropsical swelling of the skin, with
passive venous congestion of the kidneys, as in scrofulous
children.

A former method of administering the root was by sticking a
particularly sweet apple full of its fibres, and roasting this under
hot embers; then the fibres were withdrawn, and the apple was
eaten by the patient.

Taken by mischance in any quantity the root is highly poisonous:
one ounce of a watery decoction has caused death in eight hours,
with vomiting, giddiness, insensibility, and palsy. Passive dropsy
in children after scarlet fever may be effectually cured by small
doses of the tincture, third decimal strength.

The name Hellebore, as applied to the plant, comes from the
Greek _Elein_--to injure, and _Bora_--fodder. It is also known as
_Melampodium_, being thus designated because Melampus, a
physician in the Peloponnesus (B.C. 1530) watched the effect on
his goats when they had eaten the leaves, and cured therewith the
insane daughters of Proetus, King of Argos.

It was famous among the Egyptian and Greek doctors of old as the
most effectual remedy for the diseases of mania, epilepsy,
apoplexy, dropsy, and gout. The tincture is very useful in mental
stupor, with functional impairment of the hearing and sight;
likewise for strumous water on the brain.

The original reputati