asarabacca; a genus of the monogyne order, belonging to the dodecandra class of plants.

Species. Of this genus there are three species; the Europeanum, the Canadense, and Virginicum. The first species grows naturally in some parts of England. It hath thick fleshy jointed roots; the leaves grow singly upon short foot-stalks, which arise immediately from the root: the flowers grow upon very short foot-stalks close to the ground, so are hid under the leaves. They have a bell-shaped empalement, of a worn-out purple colour, which is cut in three at the top, where it turns backward. It delights in a moist shady place, and may be propagated by parting the roots in autumn. The two other species have no remarkable properties.

Medicinal Uses. The dried roots of this plant have been generally brought from the Levant; those of our own growth being supposed weaker.

Both the roots and leaves have a nauseous, bitter, acrimonious, hot taste; their smell is strong, and not very disagreeable. Given in sufficient from half a dram to a dram, they evacuate powerfully both upwards and downwards. It is said, that tinctures made in spirituous menstrua, possess both the emetic and cathartic virtues of the plant; that the extract obtained by infusing these tinctures, acts only by vomit, and with great mildness; that an infusion in water proves cat-

thartic, rarely emetic; that aqueous decoctions made by long boiling, and the watery extract, have no purgative or emetic quality, but prove notable diaphoretics, diuretics, and emmenagogues.

The principal use of this plant among us is as a sternutatory. The root of asarum is perhaps the strongest of all the vegetable rhines, white heliobore itself not excepted. Sniffed up the nose, in the quantity of a grain or two, it occasions a large evacuation of mucus, and raises a plentiful spitting. The leaves are considerably milder, and may be used to the quantity of three, four, or five grains. Geoffroy relates, that after sniffing up a dose of this rhine at night, he has frequently observed the discharge from the nose to continue for three days together; and that he has known a paralysis of the mouth and tongue cured by one dose. He recommends this medicine in stubborn disorders of the head proceeding from viscid tenacious matter, in pustules, and in soporific distempers.