in pharmacy, &c. a gum-resin, brought to us in two forms; the finer and purer is in loose granules, or single drops; the coarser kind is in masses composed of these drops of various sizes, cemented together by a matter of the same kind. In either case, it is of a firm and compact substance, considerably heavy, and of a reddish colour on the outside, brownish within, and spotted in many places with small yellowish or whitish specks. Its smell is strong and disagreeable; its taste acrid and unpleasant.

It is brought to us from Persia and the East-Indies. The plant which produces it has never been described; but is supposed to be, as Dioscorides says, of the fennel kind, from the seeds and fragments of the stalks sometimes met with in the body of it.

Sagapenum is a very great attenuant, aperient, and disfective. It is good in all disorders of the breast that owe their origin to a tough phlegm. It has also been found to dissolve tumours in the nervous parts, in a remarkable manner; and to give relief in habitual headaches, where almost all things else have failed. Its dose is from ten grains to two scruples; but it is now seldom given alone. It has been found, however, to do great things in asthmas; in obstructions of the viscera, particularly the spleen; in nervous complaints; and even in epilepsies. It also promotes the menses, and expels the secundines; and is an ingredient in the theriac, mitridate, and many other of the shop compositions.