Читать книгу Madame Young's Guide to Health - Amelia Young - Страница 96

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This plant rises eight or ten feet in hight, and entwines around trees the same as a vine; flowers in loose clusters, always turning against the sun; the carolla is composed of one petal, wheel shaped, and divided at the bottom or border into five pointed segments, which are bent back; purple prominences, like dots, surround the rim of the carolla, from the nectary; the yellow anther making a beautiful contrast; the flowers become bright red; berries something similar to currants, and are of a bitter, sweet taste. This climbing shrub grows common in low grounds and marshes. The dulcamara is a powerful and useful medicine; it increases all the secretions and excretions, excites the heart and arteries, and is also beneficial in all cutaneous effections, rheumatism, scirrhus swellings, ill-conditioned ulcers, scrofula, whites, jaundice, and obstructed menses. Cancers of the breast have been cured by the application of the juice to the cancer, and the green leaves applied to the breast.

Preparation.—Boil half a pound of the bark of the bitter sweet in eight quarts of spring water to the consumption of one gallon; a gill to be taken three times a day; it is also good in fevers. The patient ought to take a dose of sal glauber once a week, while using the medicine.