188. CENTAUREA benedicta. BLESSED THISTLE. The Leaves. E. D.--The herb should be gathered when in flower, great care taken in drying it, and kept in a very dry airy place, to prevent its rotting or growing mouldy, which it is very apt to do. The leaves have a penetrating bitter taste, not very strong or very durable, accompanied with an ungrateful flavour, which they are in great measure freed from by keeping. The virtues of this plant seem to be little known in the present practice. We have frequently experienced excellent effects from a light infusion of carduus in loss of appetite, where the stomach was injured by irregularities. A stronger infusion made in cold or warm water, if drunk freely, and the patient kept warm, occasions a plentiful sweat, and promotes all the secretions in general. The seeds of this plant are also considerably bitter, and have been sometimes used for the same purposes as the leaves. 189. CHIRONIA Centaurium. LESSER CENTAURY. The Tops. L. E. D.--This is justly esteemed to be the most efficacious bitter of all the medicinal plants indigenous to this country. It has been recommended as a substitute for Gentian, and, by several, thought to be a more useful medicine: experiments have also shown it to possess an equal degree of antiseptic power. Many authors have observed, that, along with the tonic and stomachic qualities of a bitter, Centaury frequently proves cathartic; but it is possible that this seldom happens, unless it be taken in very large doses. The use of this, as well as of the other bitters, was formerly common in febrile disorders previous to the knowledge of Peruvian-bark, which now supersedes them perhaps too generally; for many cases of fever occur which are found to be aggravated by the Cinchona, yet afterwards readily yield to the simple bitters.--Woodville, p. 277. 190. COCHLEARIA officinalis. SCURVY-GRASS. The Herb. E.--Is antiseptic, attenuant, aperient, and diuretic, and is said to open obstructions of the viscera and remoter glands, without heating or irritating the system. It has long been considered as the most effectual of all the antiscorbutic plants; and its sensible qualities are sufficiently powerful to confirm this opinion. In the rheumatismus vagus, called by Sydenham Rheumatismus scorbuticus, consisting of wandering pains of long continuance, accompanied with fever, this plant, combined with Arum and Wood-Sorrel, is highly commended both by Sydenham and Lewis. We have testimony of its great use in scurvy, not only from physicians, but navigators; as Anson, Linschoten, Maartens, Egede, and others. And it has been justly noticed, that this plant grows plentifully in those high latitudes where the scurvy is most obnoxious. Forster found it in great abundance in the islands of the South Seas.--Woodville, p. 395.