Читать книгу Madame Young's Guide to Health - Amelia Young - Страница 97

Table of Contents

This well known, useful plant, rises about two feet in hight; leaves very large, similar to water dock; roots long, thick as a man’s thumb, very mucilaginous, and are black externally and white within; flowers of a pale blue color. It grows in moist meadows, near springs, and is planted in gardens for family use. The roots are inspissant and demulcent, having the same virtues as marsh mallow; they correct salt sharp serum, heal erasions of the intestines in diarrhœa and dysentery, and prevent the spitting of blood; bruised and applied to ruptures, externally, they have proved beneficial.

Preparation.—Take four ounces of the fresh roots, or three of dry, four ounces of burdock root, two of red rose willow bark, one of parsley, and two of yarrow tops; boil these ingredients in four quarts of water and one of new milk, to the consumption of two quarts; strain and sweeten it with loaf sugar. A gill of this decoction, taken three times a day, will cure the recent clap in a few days, using the tormentil injection, elsewhere directed. It is also beneficial in curing the fluor albus, or whites, in weakly females. The roots, boiled in milk, are good for fluxes, dysentery, and ardor of urine. Take two ounces of dry comfrey root, bruised, and one ounce of tormentil root, boil them in three quarts of water down to two; strain it and add a pint of brandy, with four ounces of powdered loaf sugar dissolved in it. A gill may be taken by adults, and a tablespoonful by children, four times a day, in cases of dysentery, diarrhœa, or flux.