(From and fax).

See Linum catharticum.

Chamaelinum vulgare. See Knawel. Chamaemelum, (from and an apple; because it grows on the ground, and has the smell of an apple). Camomile. Galen calls it euanthemon. It is corruptly named camomilla. The following are the most common species.

Chamaemelum nobile. Cham. Romanum leucan-themum odoratius, vel odoratissimum repens; by Dios-corides, chrysocallia; common camomile. It is the anthemis nobilis Lin. Sp. Plant. 1260. Nat. order compositae radiate.

It is found wild in moist pasture grounds in many parts of England, but is commonly cultivated in gardens. It flowers in July, August, and the following summer months; and the seeds come to perfection at the time of flowering. The leaves and flowers have a strong, though not ungrateful smell, and bitter taste. The flowers are more aromatic and bitter than the leaves and the stalks; the yellow disk is by far the strongest. The smell and taste are both improved by careful drying, and they lose very little by long keeping. These flowers are found to consist of a bitter extractive part, and an essential oil. The former is the tonic, and the latter the carminative portion.

The flowers only are used internally: they are bitter, carminative, anodyne, antispasmodic; of particular use in cold flatulent colics, especially if joined with aroma-tics; in nephritic, hysteric, hypochondriac, and other spasmodic disorders. The vomiting of breeding women, and the after-pains of parturition, are greatly relieved by them; and it has been idly supposed that they will prevent the accession of puerperal fever, and promote the uterine discharges. In agues, from half a drachm to 3 i. of the powder is given every two or three hours during the intermission; but as this quantity is apt to run off by the bowels, it is usually joined to an opiate or astringent. The camomile is useful in spasmodic colics, and also in the dysentery, from its laxative power; but in diarrhoea it has been found hurtful. In fevers of the low and irregular kind, attended with visceral obstructions, especially when too nearly allied to continual fevers to admit of the bark, the camomile is assisted by a mixture of fixed alkaline salts, and other corroborating medicines. A warm infusion, from two to three ounces, taken twice a day, has been efficacious in relieving pains of the stomach. In much larger quantity, it excites vomiting, and promotes the operation of emetics; for which purposes it is frequently given. In general, camomile flowers possess in a very great degree all the virtues of bitters (see Amara), rendered more effectual by the warmth of the bitter oil, while, from the total absence of the astringent principle, they are of considerable service in pulmonic affections. They seem superior in most respects to the quassia, the columbo, to the angustura. bark, and perhaps the myrrh; yielding perhaps only to the columbo, where bile abounds in the stomach. If it proves purgative, the best addition is the extract of the logwood. Externally, the flowers are used in the decoction for fomentation, and are also an ingredient in the decoction for clysters.

The dose may be from gr. x. to 3i of the dry powder; of the fresh juice from the whole herb, from one to six ounces, which, if taken just before the paroxysm of agues, is said to be effectual in a few doses. This juice is supposed to be peculiarly useful in strangury, asthmas, jaundice, and dropsies.

Camomile flowers yield their virtue to water and to spirit: the dry flowers make a more agreeable infusion than those that are fresh or newly dried; and the most grateful is when cold water only is used. Distilled with water, they impregnate it strongly; and, from the flowers, a small proportion of essential oil may be thus obtained. This oil is of a yellowish colour, and possesses all the virtues of the flowers in an eminent degree.

Externally, this herb is discutient and antiseptic; but the flowers possess the greatest degree of these qualities. Dr. Pringle says, that their antiseptic power is 120 times greater than that of sea salt.

A green oil is prepared from the herb, while it is fresh, in April and May at furthest, by boiling it with. olive oil until the leaves are almost crisped: but as boiling dissipates the most efficacious part of the herb, the best method is to steep the flowers cold in the oil, and to strain it off as it is wanted.

Extractum Chamaemeli. Extract of Camomile, is prepared by boiling the flowers in distilled water, pressing and straining the decoction. When the faeces have subsided, the decoction is evaporated in a water-bath saturated with sea salt, to a consistence proper for making pills. Lond. Pharm. 1788. This extract is remarkably antiseptic, according to the experiments of Sir John Pringle; and in doses of one or two scruples, either given by itself, or added to other remedies, proves highly beneficial in flatulence, indigestion, and pains of the stomach and bowels. In the same manner have the college of physicians of London ordered the extract of broom tops, gentian, black hellebore, liquorice, rue, and savine, to be made. But if the extract of this flower is obtained from a spirituous tincture, it retains much of its flavour, as well as its bitter taste. Lewis's and Cullen's Mat. Med.

Chamaemelum vulgare, Ieucanthemum Dioscoridis;