rief, mental and bodily.

"Salvia comfortat nervos, manuumque tremorem
Tollit; et ejus ope febris acuta fugit."

"Sage helps the nerves, and by its powerful might
Palsy is cured, and fever put to flight."

[492] But if Sage be smelt for some time it will cause a sort of
intoxication, and giddiness. The leaves, when dried and smoked in a
pipe as tobacco, will lighten the brain.

In Sussex, a peasant will munch Sage leaves on nine consecutive
mornings, whilst fasting, to cure ague.

A strong infusion of the herb has been used with success to dry up
the breast milk for weaning; and as a gargle Sage leaf tea, when
sweetened with honey, serves admirably. This decoction, when
made strong, is an excellent lotion for ulcers, and to heal raw
abrasions of the skin. The herb may be applied externally ill bags as
a hot fomentation. Some persons value the Wormwood Sage more
highly than either of the other varieties.

In the Sage flower the stamens swing round their loosely-connected
anther cells against the back of any blundering bee who is in search
of honey, just as in olden days the bag of sand caught the shoulders
of a clumsy youth when tilting at the Quintin.

Wild Meadow Sage (_Salvia verbenaca_), or Meadow Clary, grows
in our dry pastures, but somewhat rarely, though it is better known
as a cultivated herb in our kitchen gardens. The leaves and flowers
afford a volatile oil, which is fragrant and aromatic.

Some have attributed the name _Salvia sclarea_, Clary (Clear eye)
to the fact of the seeds being so mucilaginous, that when the eye is
invaded by any small foreign body, their decoction will remove the
same by acting as an emulsion to lubricate it away. The leaves and
flowers may be usefully given in an infusion for hysterical colic and
similar troubles connected with nervous weakness. Also they make
a pleasant fermented wine. The Wood Sage is the Wood Germander,
[493] _Teucrium scorodinia_, a woodland plant with sage-like
leaves, containing a volatile oil, some tannin, and a bitter principle.
This plant has been used as a substitute for hops. It was called "hind
heal" from curing the hind when sick, or wounded, and was
probably the same herb as _Elaphoboscum_, the Dittany, taken by
harts in Crete. A snuff has been made from its powder to cure nasal
polypi: also the infusion (freshly prepared), should be given
medicinally, two tablespoonfuls for a dose: or, of the powder, from
thirty to forty gra