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.

* * * * *

SECT. VIII.--MEDICINAL PLANTS not contained in either of the BRITISH
DISPENSATORIES.

For the use of the Medical Student I selected in the foregoing section
such plants as are contained in the Pharmacopoeias of the present day:
but there are many mentioned in Woodville's Medical Botany, Lewis's
Dispensatory, &c. which, although discarded from the College list, are
nevertheless still used by medical practitioners and others.

It would be difficult to give a full history of all the plants that have
from time to time been recommended for medical uses. The old writers, as
Gerard, Parkinson, Lyte, &c. attributed medical virtues to all the
plants which came under their notice; and, on the other hand, as we
observed above, the vegetable department of the Pharmacopoeias has from
time to time been reduced so much, that, if we had confined ourselves to
that alone, we fear our little treatise on this head would, by many
persons, be thought defective. The following list is therefo