sing the entire plant. Hahnemann found that the Pansy
violet, when taken by provers, served to induce cutaneous eruptions,
or to aggravate them, and he reasoned out the curative action of the
plant in small diluted doses for the cure of these symptoms, when
occurring as disease.

"For milk crust and scald head," says Dr. Hughes (Brighton)--the
plague of children, "I have rarely needed any other medicine than
this _Viola tricolor_; and I have more than once given it in recent
impetigo (pustular eczema) for adults, with very satisfactory
effects." For the first of these maladies the tincture should be given
in doses of from three to six drops, to a child of from two to six or
eight years, three times a day in water.

Again, "for curing scalled (from _scall_, a shell) head in children, a
small handful of the fresh plant, or half a drachm of the dried herb,
boiled for two hours in milk, is to be taken each night and morning;
also a bread poultice made with this decoction should be applied to
the affected part.

"During the first eight days the eruption increases, and the urine,
when the medicine succeeds, has a nauseous odour like that of the
cat, which presently passes off; then, as the use of the plant is
continued, the scabs disappear, and the skin recovers its natural
clean condition."

The root of the _Viola tricolor_ has similar properties [591] to that
of Ipecacuanha, and is often used beneficially as a substitute by
country doctors. An infusion thereof is admirable for the dysentery
of young children. It loves a mixture of chalk in the soil where it
grows.

The Pansy contains an active chemical principle, "violin," resin,
mucilage, sugar, and the other ordinary constituents of plants. When
bruised the plant, and especially its root, smells like peach kernels,
or prussic acid. It acts as a slight laxative: and "the distilled
water of the flowers" says Gerard--"cureth the French disease."

The Germans style the Pansy _Stief-mutter_, because figuratively
the mother-in-law appears in the flower predominant in purple
velvet, and her own two daughters gay in purple and yellow, whilst
the two poor little Cinderellas, more soberly and scantily attired, are
squeezed in between. Again, another fable says, with respect to the
five petals and the five sepals of the Pansy, two of which petals are
plain in colour, whilst each has a single sepal, the three other petals
being gay of hue, one of these (the largest of all) ha