to be uncommonly favourable to their re-production, perhaps the most easy method of preventing them, would be a careful attention to this circumstance.
FRENCH-MERCURY, or Mercurialis annua, L. an in indigenous plant, growing on waste places, and dunghills in the vicinity of towns; and flowering in the months of August and September. The whole of this vegetable is mucilaginous: when cultivated in gardens, it is dressed like spinach, to which it is said to be greatly superior; but, if eaten in a large quantity, it is aperient.—In France, according to Tournefort, a syrup is prepared from the juice of the mercury, 2 oz. of which are given at one dose as a laxative: it is also used in clysters, and pessaries, in the proportion of one part of honey and two of the juice.—In England, this plant was formerly in great an emollient, but is at present disregarded.—As an article of diet, it may be useful to persons liable to costiveness.
French-Wheat: See Buck-wheat.
FRICTION, in medicine, is the act of rubbing a diseased part with oils, unguents, and other matters, in order to ease, relieve, and cure it.
Friction is also performed with a flesh-brush, a linen-cloth, or with flannel; which last is the most eligible. It is a kind of exercise that remarkably contributes to the health of sedentary persons; for it excites and kindles the natural warmth; diverts defluxions; promotes perspiration; opens the pores; and tends to dissipate stagnant humours.
This operation is particularly beneficial to the nervous, debilitated, and studious; being an useful substitute for other exercise. Hence we recommend to such individuals to spend half an hour every morning and evening in rubbing their whole body, especially their limbs, with a clean piece of flannel. It ought, however, to be observed, that this practice will be of the greatest service when the stomach and bowels are empty.
Lastly, we venture to affirm, that the most important purposes to which friction may be rendered subservient in the animal economy, have hitherto been almost entirely neglected: we are, however, convinced from experience, that medicated frictions, or the introduction of the most active medicines into the human system, by rubbing them in properly on the surface, might be attended with the most happy effects, especially in all chronical diseases. Common sense appears to have long since pointed out this excellent method of administering medicines, even to the Indian savages, though it is little practised in enlightened Europe, where the stomach is doomed to be the field of battle, for deciding commotions and irregularities in our complicated frame. But who is hardy enough to maintain, that the digestive organ was by Nature destined to be the exclusive vehicle of drugs, and to serve as their common laboratory?
FROG, or Rana, L. a genus of amphibious reptiles, consisting of 17 species, the most remarkable of which are;
1. The temporaria, or Common Frog, which is an animal so well known as to render any description unnecessary.—Some of its properties, however, are very singular: its power of leaping is extraordi-
