Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/405

BUC soon assumes a yellow, orange colour. It contains a considerable proportion of gummy ingredients, which render it a tonic, gently as- tringent, and antiseptic medicine. The resinous extract is acrid and astringent, strongly purgative and resolvent : but the bark, in pow- der, mixed with honey, gum ara- bic, or any other mucilage, as well as a watery decoction of it, operates mildly, when taken in small doses, for the cure of intermittents : it may also be beneficially employed in slow, putrid, or nervous fevers, and in general debility after chronic diseases. Externally applied, in green wounds, laxity of the fibres, malignant foul ulcers, and in slop- ping the progress of mortification, this remedy possesses tonic, gently stimulating and healing proper- ties. The decoction is of great service in reducing inveterate in- flammations of the eyes, and curing the itch ; as it cleanses the skin, and abates the burning heat, with- out repelling the humours. But it should never be employed in ulcers that have arisen in consequence of erysipelas, or the rose : in other cases, its application will always be more safe, and attended with better effects, when it is at the same time used internally. 2. The frangula, or alder buck- thorn, or black-berry bearing alder, grows in woods and moist hedges ; it general])! attains a height of from six to ten feet. The wood of this shrub, when young, is soft and ■■v, but becomes hard and light-red with age : its external bark is dark-grey, with white spots, but internally yellow; the branches contain an orange-coloured medul- lary tube. Its yellowish leaves appear late in May, or June, and sometimes a second foliage comes BUC [ m forth in autumn. The berries are at first dark-green, then become red, and at length black, when ful- ly ripe; containing a sweet, though unpleasant juice. Goats devour the leaves with avidity, and they are also eaten by sheep : the flow- ers are particularly grateful to bees. The bark dyes yellow, and with iron, black. The berries gathered before they are ripe, dye wool green. Charcoal prepared from the wood, is preferred in making gun-powder. DAMBOURNEYmade the following successful experi- ment with the ripe berries. He bruised diem in cold water, and allowed the whole to undergo the vinous fermentation, which took place in eight days. This liquor he boiled for half an hour, and then dyed wool that had been pre- viously prepared with bismuth : thus he obtained a very beautiful green colour, which he called a new, or native green, because it was not in the least affected either by strong vinegar, or a solution of potash. On adding a little sugar of lead to the dye, the vivacity of the colour was considerably in- creased. The rind, boiled in milk, is as- serted to be a safe and efficaci- ous remedy for eruptions of die skin 3 yet we do not advise the reader to try experiments with this, or similar remedies, without con- sulting a medical friend. Decoc- tions of the bark in table-beer, are very certain and brisk purgatives, in dropsies, or constipations of the bowels of cattle. Buck -Thorn, the Sea, or common sallow-thorn, the Hip- pophce rhamnoides, L. is a very important shrub, growing wild on sandy shores, in various parts of the British coast, especially in B b 3 Kent,