Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 1815. Cl. 19. Ord. 2. Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua. Nat. Ord.

Compositae. G. 1473. Receptacle subvillous or almost naked. Seed-down none.

Cal. imbricate, with roundish converging scales. Cor. without rays. *** Herbaceous, with the stem somewhat branching, the flowers in panicles, the leaves compound. Species 26. A. santonica, Tartarian Southernwood. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 61. t. 23. ---------63. A. Absinthium. Common Wormwood. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 54. t. 22. Smith's Flora Brit. 864. **** Shrubby, with a branched stem and simple leaves. Species 71. A. chinensis. Chinese wormwood.

1. Artemisia Santonica.

Officinal. Artemisiae Santonic cacumina, Edin. Artemisia Santonicum, semina, Bub. The tops and seeds of Tartarian Southernwood. Syn. Sementine (F.), Tartarisches Beyfus, Wurmsamen (G.), Santonico, Seme Santo (I.).

This species of artemisia is a native of Tartary and Persia; but it is cultivated in our gardens, flowering in September. The root is perennial; and the plant has the habits of indigenous field southernwood, but is erect. The stem is panicled, rising two feet in height, and rather hoary. The lower leaves are pinnate, much cut, linear, and hoary. The branches are wand-like, with alternate racemes, recurved, and having flowers all looking the same way. The flowers are solitary and cylindrical. In the fruiting plant all the stems are erect, and lose their hoariness. The leaves on the branches are very small, linear, and undivided. The receptacle is naked.1

The qualities and medical properties of this plant are nearly the same as those of the other species of artemisia; and it may be used for the same purposes. According to the analysis of M. Wackenroder, it contains of a bitter principle, 20.25; brown, bitter resin, 4.45; a green, acrid, aromatic resin, 6.65; cerine, 0.35; gummy extractive, 15.50; ulmine, 8.60; mu-late of lime and silex, 2; woody fibre, 35.44; and earthy matter, 6.70, in 100 parts. The worm-seeds (semina San-tonici) of the former pharmacopoeias, which were supposed to be the production of this plant, are now properly rejected, as their place can be well supplied with anthelmintics of more certainty.

2. Artemisia Absinthium.2

Officinal. Absinthium, Lond. Artemisije-Absinthii folia, summitates, Edin. Bub. The leaves and flowering tops of Wormwood.

1 Willdenow, iii. 1827.

Dioscoridis.

Syn. Absinthe commun (F.), Wormuth (G.), Alsem (Dutch), Malurt (Danish), Malert (Swed.), Piolun (Polish), Polin (Russian), Assenzio (I.), Arteraisio axenjo (S.), Losna (Portug.).

Common wormwood is an indigenous perennial plant growing in dry waste places, and flowering in August. The greater part, however, of that which is used for medicinal purposes is cultivated in the physical gardens.1 The root is somewhat woody, and branched. The stems rise nearly erect to the height of two or three feet; are branching, angled, and furrowed, with the summits panicled. The lower leaves are bipinnate; the upper pinnatifid or digitated; with oblong, obtuse, very entire segments. The racemes are erect, and the flowers pedicellated, nodding, hemispherical, and of a brownish-yellow colour. The florets of the disc are numerous; but those of the ray few: and the receptacle is covered with white silky hairs, shorter than the calyx.

Qualities.-The odour of common wormwood is strong; and although fragrant, yet to many persons it is very disagreeable : the taste is intensely bitter, slightly pungent, and nauseous. These qualities are given out both to water and to alcohol; and a dark green volatile oil, on which the odour depends, is obtained by distillation with water. The watery infusion of the plant has a pale olive colour: sulphate of iron, and of zinc, slowly deepen it to a black; and acetate of lead throws down a yellowish-green flocculent precipitate; but it is not affected by tartarized antimony. The active parts of the plant seem to be extractive, volatile oil which is not in the least bitter, and a small portion of resin. Kunsmuller2 found in the residue of 12 ounces of the plant after infusion, besides other things, 59 grains of carbonate of lime.

Medical properties and uses. - Common wormwood is tonic, and anthelmintic; and when externally applied, it is said to be discutient and antiseptic. It has been used with advantage in intermittents, gout, scurvy, and dropsy; and although modern practitioners will scarcely rely on its efficacy in these complaints, yet it is undoubtedly of some value as a stomachic in dyspeptic and hypochondriacal affections. When it is desirable to free the remedy from its narcotic property, it should be given in decoction, as the boiling dissipates the essential oil on which this depends. The powdered root is much relied upon in Germany for the cure of epilepsy. It must be powdered only when wanted for use : the dose for an adult is from gr. 1. to gr. lxx. This dose is given in hot beer

1 A good deal is cultivated at Mitcham in Surrey, chiefly for the seed, which is sold to the rectifiers of British spirits at about 30s. per cwt.-Stevensoti's Survey, p. 378. 2 Ann. de Chym. vi. p. 35.

an hour before the paroxysm is expected. The sensible effect is powerful sweating.1 I have used the herbaceous part of the plant in the same manner with decided advantage. The dose in substance is Эj. to Эij. and of the infusion, made by macerating 3vj. of the plant in f xij. of boiling water, f j. to f 3xij., which may be given three or four times a day.2 Officinal preparations.-Extraction Absinthii, D.

3. Artemisia Chinensis. Officinal. Artemisia Chinensis et A. Indica, folia, Moxa, Dub. Moxa.

Syn. Khi-ngai; Gaetsaou (Chinese).

This species of Artemisia is a native of China; but it grows readily in the open air in this country. It is a shrubby plant, with tomentose leaves, about a finger-breadth in length: the lower leaves are wedge-shaped and trilobed; the upper, lanceolate and obtuse. The flowers which are produced on the summits of the twigs are in dense, frequently ovate, simple racemes.

For the preparation of Moxa, the plant is collected early in the morning, when it is still wet with dew: it is next hung up, in a free current of dry air, in a shady place, until it is perfectly dry; the leaves are then bruised in a mortar, and afterwards rubbed between the hands until the downy part is separated from the woody fibre. It is this downy matter, rolled into cones, about the height of the breadth of the little finger, that constitutes the Chinese Moxa. The Chinese employ several other species of Artemisia, for the preparation of moxas: in Europe moxas are now made of various materials; and almost any combustible will serve, if the combustion be maintained by blowing upon it; but those moxas which burn spontaneously are preferred. Cotton, dipped in a solution of nitrate of potassa, and rolled into little cylinders, is frequently used: the pith of the sun-flower, helianthus annuus, as it burns spontaneously, constitutes the greater part of the French moxas; and these are made either solid or hollow, the former being used when a deep eschar is not required; the latter when it is considered necessary.

In Lapland moxas are prepared from a species of fungus, which is found on old birch-trees.

Medical properties and uses. - Prepared Artemisia Chinensis, Moxa, burnt upon the body, acts as a powerful counter-irritant, allaying deep-seated pains and inflammation:- it is, therefore, useful in gout, rheumatism, obstinate headach, vertigo, white swellings of joints, and many local diseases, in

1 Hufeland's Journ. 1824.

2 Purl is an infusion of wormwood in ale, which counter-irritation proves useful. The most common mode of using Moxa is to place the little cone, or cylinder, into which it is rolled, upon the skin; and having set fire to the summit, to allow it to burn to the base. In some cases, however, it is not requisite to place the Moxa on the skin, but only to hold it, in an ignited state, at a small distance from the affected part, moving it backwards and forwards. As far as our own experience authorizes us to form an opinion, we prefer the use of the actual cautery to that of Moxa; and if proper care be taken to guard the surrounding skin from the radiation of the caloric of the hot iron, the pain is less than that produced by Moxa, whilst, at the same time, the slough is more perfect, and sooner thrown off. The best mode of applying the actual cautery is to cover the part with three or four doublings of cartridge paper, soaked in water, and then pressed between two boards. In this covering a hole is to be made, a little larger than the bulb of the iron to be employed.

If the iron be made white hot, and the surrounding parts be thus protected, little pain is caused by the application of the cautery; for the life of the part to which it is applied is instantaneously destroyed, and radiation produces no effect on the surrounding skin.