MEDICINAL PART. The Flowers.
    Description. -- This is a perennial herb, with a strong fibrous root. The stems in a wild state are prostrate, but in gardens more upright, about a span long, round, hollow, furrowed, and downy; the leaves pale green, pinnate, sessile, with thread-shaped leaflets. The flower-heads terminal, rather larger than the daisy, and of yellow color, or whitish.
    History. -- Chamomile is indigenous to Southern Europe; we have also a common or wild Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla) growing in the United States, but it is not considered as good as the Roman Chamomile for medicinal purposes, which is the kind I use. The white flowers are the best; they have an aromatic, agreeably bitter taste, and peculiar odor. They yield their properties to alcohol and water.
    Properties and Uses. -- Chamomile is a tonic; one or two teacupfuls of the warm infusion will usually vomit. The cold infusion is highly useful in dyspepsia, and in all cases of weak or irritable stomachs, also in intermittent and typhoid fevers. The oil is carminative and antispasmodic, and is used in flatulency, colic, cramp in the stomach, hysteria, nervous diseases, and painful menstruation.
    A poultice of Chamomile will often prevent gangrene, and remove it when present. It is an ingredient in my "Restorative Assimilant," and is a most excellent adjutant and corrigent in that great remedy.
    Dose. -- Half a drachm to two drachms of the flowers. Of the infusion, half a teacupful to a teacupful; of the oil, five to fifteen drops on sugar.