ly pulling up the
plant by its root, and carrying it some little distance in the hand,
the palm becomes reddened and inflamed. Cows will not eat it
unless very hungry, and then the mouth of the animal becomes
sore and blistered. The leaves of the Buttercup, when bruised and
applied to the skin, produce a blistering of the outer cuticle, with a
discharge of a watery fluid, and with heat, redness, and swelling.
If these leaves are masticated in the mouth they will induce pains
like a stitch between the ribs at the side, with the sharp catchings
of neuralgic rheumatism. A medicinal tincture is made (H.) from
the bulbous Buttercup with spirit of wine, which will, as a similar,
cure _shingles_ very expeditiously, both the outbreak of
small watery pimples clustered together at the side, and the
accompanying sharp pains between the ribs. Also this tincture will
[73] promptly relieve neuralgic side-ache, and pleurisy which is of
a passive sort. From six to eight drops of the tincture may be taken
with a tablespoonful of cold water by an adult three or four times a
day for either of the aforesaid purposes. In France, this plant is
called "jaunet." Buttercups are most probably the "Cuckoo Buds"
immortalised by Shakespeare. The fresh leaves of the Crowfoot
(_Ranunculus acris_) formed a part of the famous cancer cure of
Mr. Plunkett in 1794. This cure comprised Crowfoot leaves,
freshly gathered, and dog's-foot fennel leaves, of each an ounce,
with one drachm of white arsenic levigated, and with five scruples
of flowers of sulphur, all beaten together into a paste, and dried by
the sun in balls, which were then powdered, and, being mixed with
yolk of egg, were applied on pieces of pig's bladder. The juice of
the common Buttercup (_Bulbosus_), known sometimes as "St.
Anthony's Turnip," if applied to the nostrils, will provoke
sneezing, and will relieve passive headache in this way. The leaves
have been applied as a blister to the wrists in rheumatism, and
when infused in boiling water as a poultice over the pit of the
stomach as a counter-irritant. For sciatica the tincture of the
bulbous buttercup has proved very helpful.

The _Ranunculus flammata_, Spearwort, has been used to produce
a slight blistering effect by being put under a limpet shell against
the skin of the part to be relieved, until some smarting and burning
have been sensibly produced, with incipient vesication of the
outermost skin.

The _Ranunculus Sceleratus_, Ma