, but its infusion produces purgative effects.

The whole plant has a saline, bitter, and somewhat acrid taste. It
contains "fumaric acid," and the alkaloid "fumarina," which are
specially useful for scrofulous diseases of the skin. A decoction of
the herb makes a curative lotion for the milk-crust which disfigures
the scalp of an infant, and for grown up persons troubled with
chronic eruptions on the face, or freckles.

The fresh juice may be given as a medicine; or an infusion made
with an ounce of the plant to a pint of boiling water, one
wineglassful for a dose twice or three times in the day.

By the ancients Fumitory was named _Capnos_, smoke: Pliny wrote
"_Claritatem facit inunctis oculis delachrymationemque, ceu fumus,
unde nomen_." They esteemed the herb specially useful for
dispelling dimness of the sight, and for curing other infirmities of
the eyes.

The leaves, which have no particular odour, throw up crystals of
nitre on their surface when cool. The juice may be mixed with
whey, and taken as a common drink, or as a medicinal beverage for
curing obstinate skin eruptions, and for overcoming obstructions of
the liver and digestive organs. Dr. Cullen found it most useful in
leprous skin disease. The juice from the fresh herb may be given
two ounces in the day, but the virtues remain equally in the dried
plant. Its smoke was said by the ancient exorcists to have the power
of expelling evil spirits. The famous physician, John of Milan,
extolled Fumitory as a sovereign remedy against malarious fever.

It is a remarkable fact, that the colour of the hair and the complexion
seem to determine the liability, or [209] otherwise, of a European to
West Coast fever in Africa. A man with harsh, bright-coloured red
hair, such as is common in Scotland, has a complete immunity,
though running the same risks as another mall, dark and with a dry
skin, who seems absolutely doomed. A red-haired European will, as
a rule, keep his health where even the natives are attacked. Old
negresses have secret methods of cure which can, undoubtedly, save
life even in cases which have become hopeless to European medical
science.

GARLIC, LEEK, and ONION.

Seeming at first sight out of place among the lilies of the field, yet
Garlic, the Leek, and the Onion are true members of that noble
order, and may be correctly classified together with the favoured
tribe, "Clothed more grandly than Solomon in all his glory." They
possess alik