Volume 1

Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the Materia Medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh: accompanied with circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / by William Woodville, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

  • Woodville, William, 1752-1805.
Date:
1790-1793
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical botany : containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates, of all the medicinal plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the catalogues of the Materia Medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh: accompanied with circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / by William Woodville, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    26/206 (page 6)
    The blacknefs manifefted by adding a folution of green vitriol to the juice, or to a ftrong infufion of the leaves of Buckbean, is a fufficient teft of its aftringency; while a dram of the powdered leaves feldom fails to open the body, or produce vomiting; fo that in com- mon with the tonic properties of a bitter, it feems farther to poffefs a confiderable fhare of medicinal activity: we can therefore more eafily credit the reports of its fuccefs in a great number of chronic difeafes mentioned by various authors % as fcurvy, dropfy, jaundice, afthma, periodical headachs, intermittents, hypochondriacs, cachexia, obftrudtio menfium, rheumatifm, fcrophula, worms, gout. Dr. Boer- haave was relieved in the laft mentioned complaint by drinking the juice mixed with wheyJ; and Dr. Alfton tells us, that “ this plant had remarkable effects in the gout, in keeping off “ the paroxyfms but adds, u though not to the patient’s advantage.” e In confirmation of the good effects of Water Trefoil in dropfies, we are told that fheep, when forced to eat it, are 1 cured of the rot; (oves tabidas) yet as we have but few and imperfedt proofs of its diuretic powers, this fadt will be confidered of little weight. Bergius confines the ufes of this plant to fcorbutus, leucophleg- matia, arthritis, rheumatifmus, cacoethes% and this fpecification is ftill farther contra&ed by later writers on the Materia Medica. In Lewis’s Mat. Med. {by Mr. Aikin) it is faid, that the leaves of buckbean “ have of late years come into common ufe as an al- “ terative and aperient, in impurities of the humours, and fome “ hydropic and rheumatic cafes and as an adtive and eccoprotic bitter, we fhould fuppofe them not ill adapted to fupply the want of bile in the primes vies, and thus infer their ufe in protradted c Trifolil Fibrini Hiftoria, feledtis obfervationibus et perfpicuis exemplis, illuftrata a Jo. Franco, anno 1701. Redte obfervavit D. Tancredus Robinfon herbam hanc Germanis, aliifque genti- bus feptentrionalibus nunc dierum unice charam et in magno pretio efle, et affiduo ufu frequentari in omnibus fere morbis, ut certiffimam panaceam, ad quam etiam in de- ploratis affedtibus, velut ad facram anchoram, confugiunt (Raii Hiftor. Plant, p. 1099.) See alfo Willius Adt. Hafn. vol. 3. Sim. Pauli, Quadrip. Bot. p. 173. etfeq. Tilling Mifc. N. curios. Dec. 2. Gulbrand DifT. de Sanguifluxu Uterino. Du Clos Anc. Mem. p. 329. Schulz Mat. Med. p. 445. d Eph. Nat. Cur. Dec. I. ann. III. Obf. 123. (this anfwers Dr. Alfton’s query, who aiks, “ Where is this related?” Alfton. Mat. Med. vol. 2. p. 240. * 1. c. f Dr. T. Robinfon. e Mat, Med. vol. 1. p. 91. jaundice.