omach occasioned by a load of viscid phlegm, and in such disorders in
general as proceed from a cold sluggish indisposition of the solids and
lentor of the fluids. I have experienced great benefit from it in
rheumatic pains, particularly those of the fixed kind, and which were
seated deep. In these cases I have given from ten grains to a scruple of
the fresh root twice or thrice a day, made into a bolus or emulsion with
unctuous and mucilaginous substances, which cover its pungency, and
prevent its making any painful impression on the tongue. It generally
excited a slight tingling sensation through the whole habit, and, when
the patient was kept warm in bed, produced a copious sweat.

The only officinal preparation, in which this root was an ingredient,
was a compound powder; in which form its virtues are very precarious.
Some recommend a tincture of it drawn with wine; but neither wine,
water, nor spirit, extract its virtues.--Lewis's Mat. Med.

182. ASARUM Europaeum, ASARABACCA. The Leaves. L. E. D.--Both the roots
and leaves have a nauseous, bitter, acrimonious, hot taste; their smell
is strong, and not very disagreeable. Given in substance from half a
dram to a dram, they evacuate powerfully both upwards and downwards. It
is said that tinctures made in spirituous menstrua possess both the
emetic and cathartic virtues of the plant: that the extract obtained by
inspissating these tinctures acts only by vomit, and with great
mildness: that an infusion in water proves cathartic, rarely emetic:
that aqueous decoctions made by long boiling, and the watery extract,
have no purgative or emetic quality, but prove notable diaphoretics,
diuretics, and emmenagogues.

Its principal use at present is as a sternutatory. The root of asarum is
perhaps the strongest of all the vegetable errhines, white hellebore
itself not excepted. Snuffed up the nose, in the quantity of a grain or
two, it occasions a large evacuation of mucus, and raises a plentiful
spitting. The leaves are considerably milder, and may be used to the
quantity of three, four, or five grains. Geoffroy relates, that after
snuffing up a dose of this errhine at night, he has frequently observed
the discharge from the nose to continue for three days together; and
that he has known a paralysis of the mouth and tongue cured by one dose.
He recommends this medicine in stubborn disorders of the head,
proceeding from viscid tenacious matter, in palsies, and in soporific