ccasion great uneasiness of the bowels. By boiling they
become (like the other drastics) milder, and more safe in operation.
Fernelius relates, that by long coction they entirely lose their
purgative virtue. The berries of this plant are likewise purgative, but
less virulent than the other parts. A rob prepared from them may be
given to the quantity of an ounce, as a cathartic; and in smaller ones
as an aperient and deobstruent in chronic disorders: in this last
intention, it is said by Haller to be frequently used in Switzerland, in
the dose of a dram.

389. SANICULA officinalis. SANICLE. The Leaves.--These have an
herbaceous, roughish taste: they have long been celebrated for sanative
virtues, both internally and externally; nevertheless their effects, in
any intention, are not considerable enough to gain them a place in the
present practice.

390. SAPONARIA officinalis. SOAPWORT. The Herb and Root.--The roots
taste sweetish and somewhat pungent; and have a light smell like those
of liquorice: digested in rectified spirit they yield a strong tincture,
which loses nothing of its taste or flavour in being inspissated to the
consistence of an extract. This elegant root has not come much into
practice among us, though it promises, from its sensible qualities, to
be a medicine of considerable utility: it is greatly esteemed by the
German physicians as an aperient, corroborant, and sudorific; and
preferred by the College of Wirtemberg, by Stahl, Neumann, and others,
to sarsaparilla.

391. SAXIFRAGA granulata.--Linnaeus describes the taste of this plant to
be acrid and pungent, which we have not been able to discover. Neither
the tubercles of this root, nor the leaves, manifest to the organs of
taste any quality likely to be of medicinal use; and therefore, though
this species of Saxifraga has been long employed as a popular remedy in
nephritic and gravelly disorders, yet we do not find, either from its
sensible qualities or from any published instances of its efficacy, that
it deserves a place in the Materia Medica.--Woodville's Med. Bot. p.
551.

392. SCABIOSA succisa. DEVIL'S BIT. The Leaves and Roots.--These stand
recommended as alexipharmics, but they have long given place to
medicines of greater efficacy.

393. SCANDIX Cerefolium. Chervil. The Leaves.--Geoffroy assures us, that
he has found it from experience to be of excellent service in dropsies:
that in this disorder it promotes the dischar