ng it, has always been a favourite pursuit among the hardy
mountaineers of Switzerland and Tirol, as well as of the amateur
sportsmen of all countries, with the result that the animal is now
comparatively rare in many districts where it was formerly common.
Chamois feed in summer on mountain-herbs and flowers, and in winter
chiefly on the young shoots and buds of fir and pine trees. They are
particularly fond of salt, and in the Alps sandstone rocks containing a
saline impregnation are often met with hollowed by the constant licking
of these creatures. The skin of the chamois is very soft; made into
leather it was the original _shammy_, which is now made, however, from
the skins of many other animals. The flesh is prized as venison.
(R. L.*)

CHAMOMILE, or Camomile Flowers, the _flores anthemidis_ of the British
Pharmacopoeia, the flower-heads of _Anthemis nobilis_ (Nat. Ord.
_Compositae_), a herb indigenous to England and western Europe. It is
cultivated for medicinal purposes in Surrey, at several places in
Saxony, and in France and Belgium,--that grown in England being much
more valuable than any of the foreign chamomiles brought into the
market. In the wild plant the florets of the ray are ligulate and white,
and contain pistils only, those of the disk being tubular and yellow;
but under cultivation the whole of the florets tend to become ligulate
and white, in which state the flower-heads are said to be double. The
flower-heads have a warm aromatic odour, which is characteristic of the
entire plant, and a very bitter taste. In addition to a bitter
extractive principle, they yield about 2% of a volatile liquid, which on
its first extraction is of a pale blue colour, but becomes a yellowish
brown on exposure to light. It has the characteristic odour of the
flowers, and consists of a mixture of butyl and amyl angelates and
valerates. Angelate of potassium has been obtained by treatment of the
oil with caustic potash, and angelic acid may be isolated from this by
treatment with dilute sulphuric acid. Chamomile is used in medicine in
the form of its volatile oil, of which the dose is 1/2-3 minims. There
is an official extract which is never used. Like all volatile oils the
drug is a stomachic and carminative. In large doses the infusion is a
simple emetic.

Wild chamomile is _Matricaria Chamomilla_, a weed common in waste and
cultivated ground especially in the southern counties of England. It has
somewhat