Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/676

 ERY

flBd roftrated feeds. This plant has been called, by other au- thors, the fquare podded rockett, and the echinatcd muftard. Teurn. Inft. p. 232.

ERUPTIONS, in infants. See Infants.

ERVUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are thefe : The flower is of the papilionaceous kind, and from its cup arifes a piftil, which finally becomes a pod, undulated on each fide, and, as it were, knotty ; it contains feveral roundifh feeds. To this it may be added,. that the leaves grow in pairs on the ribs. Tourn. Inft. p. 398.

The fpecies of Ervum, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort,. are thefe: 1. The true Ervum, called, by fome, the orobus, with jointed pods. 2. The true Ervum, with purplifh flowers. 3. The Ervum, with fmall feeds : And 4. The Ervum, with obtufe triangular feeds.

ERYNGIUM, Eringo, in botany, the name of a peculiar genus of umbelliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confifting of feveral petals, the points of which ufually turn inwards, and which are ar- ranged, in a circular order, on a cup that afterwards be- comes a fruit, compofed of two feeds : Thefe are fometimes foliated, fometimes plain, of an oval figure, while in their involucrum, which they, however, often throw off, and then appear like corns of wheat. To this it may be added, that the heads of flowers have all a circle of leaves placed under them.

The fpecies of Eryngium, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1, The fea Eryngium. 2. The Portugal Eryn- gium, with larger leaves. 3. The common Eryngium. 4. The Portugal Eryngium, like the common kind, but with broader leaves. 5. The blue alpine Eryngium, with dipfacus heads. 6. The very prickly alpine Eryngium, with long Ihaped, dipfacus-like heads. 7. The broad leav'd plant Eryngium, with round heads. 8- The broad leav'd plane Eryngium, with white flowers, and greenifli white (talks. 9. The baftard Eryngium, produced from the feeds of the plane kind. io. The blue mountain Eryngium. n. The blue alpine Eryngium, with larger and paler heads. 12. The fmall Portugal blue Eryngium, with longer leaves. 13. The leffer plane Eryngium. 14. The dwarf mountain Eryngium. 15. The Sicilian Eryngium, with pfyllium heads. 16. The Sinking American Eryngium. 17. The fweet-fcented fmall marfh Eryngium. 18. The Portugal erect marfh Eryngium, with pfyllium heads. 19. The horned Portugal marfh Eryn- gium, and 20. The procumbent Portugal marfh Eryngium. Tourn. Inft. p. 327.

The root of Eryngium is attenuant and deobftruent, and is therefore cfteemed a good hepatic, uterine, and nephritic. Its whole virtue, it is to be obferved, confifts in the external or cortical part.

Eryngium is alfo a name given, by fome of the old authors, to aloes, a medicine as different from the root of this name as any one thing can well be from another. There are feven different fpecies of the Eryngium plant propa- gated in the gardens of the curious, but the common fea kind istheonlyoneofanyufe. The roots of this are in great quantities, both dried and candied in the fliops ; they may all be propa- gated, either by parting their roots, or lowing their feeds ; but the firft is the moil convenient and expeditious method. This is to be done in February, or in the beginning of March, before the plants have fhot out their leaves ; and the foils they moft delight in are gravel and fand, but in dry feafons they require a great deal of watering. The fecond year after their removal from the old plant they will flower, but the flowers are not fo ftrong as in the older plants. They fpread very much at the root. Milter's Gardener's Diet. There is a very remarkable tradition, among fome authors, concerning this plant, which is, that if a goat happens to take into its mouth a head of the Eryngo, the whole flock that he is with will all ftare upon him with aftonifliment, and ftand as if rooted to the earth. Ariftotle is the firft author we find aflerting this, and after him Caryflius in his book De Admirabilibus. . Pliny has not omitted this wonderful ftory, but he has ftrangely mifreprefented it in the telling: He fays, that if any perfon takes one of the goats of a flock by the beard, the reft will all ftand as if rooted to the earth with aftonifliment. It will not be eafy for the unlearned reader to find how this ftory can be the fame with the other, but the whole is eafily explained by obferving, that Pliny's carelefT- nefs, has made him tranflate the word npuyyw, a beard, in- ftead of a plant. This appears, by comparing his tranflation with the original, to have been plainly the cafe ; and he adds, from fome other author, that the fame thing happens when any one of them chances to bite a certain herb ; but he does not name the word Eryngium, which he had juft before . translated a beard, as the name of the plant, but omits to mention what it was.

Theophraftus has the fame ftory of the goats, but his manner of telling it very plainly fhews, that he underftood it from his matter Ariftotle, as fpoken of the goats eating Eryngo, not being taken by the beard. For lie exprefsly fays, that as foon as the creature has taken this plant into its mouth, it ftops, 3
 * 1) nd fo do all the reft. The whole of this ft range ftory may

ERY

have no more in it, than that as foon as one of thefe crea- tures, who has been browfing upon other herbs, chances to" take a head of this into his mouth, the thorns about it prick, him, and he ftops ftiort, and the reft of the flock, beino- ti- morous animals, flop alfo till they fee whether any danger threatens them.

ERYSIMUM, Hedge Mujiard, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower coniifts of four leaves, which are difpofed in form of a crofs. The piftil arifes from the cup, and finally be- comes a pod, divided into two cells by an intermediate mem- brane, and containing fmall roundifh feeds. To this it may be added, that the Eryfimum have all a peculiar general ap- pearance. They gave, r. The common Erifymttm, 2. The Eryfimum with pods, refembling thofe of rpekett. 3. The horned Eryfunum. 4. The great broad-leav'd fmooih Ery~ ftmum. 5. The greater narrow-leav'd Eryfunum, 6. The Pyrensean horned Eryfimum, with leaves like thofe of woad. 7, The perennial Eryfimum of the Pyrensean mountains, with dandelion leaves. Tourn. Inft. p, 228.

Erysyivium, in medicine, is famous as an attenuant. It refolves tough humours in the lungs and fauces, and promotes expectoration in a very remarkable manner. It is good in afthmas, inveterate coughs, and hoarfenefs. We ufed to have a fyrup of it in the fliops, but it is now dif- ufed.

The Eryfunum is recommended by Dr. Stab I for fciiio- cancrous tumours, taken internally,, and alio externally ap- plied to the tumour- We have twohiftories of its good effects., by Mr. Bingcrt, in Act. Med. Bcrol. dec. 3. voL 1. p. 59.

ERYSIPELAS. (Cyd.)— In cryfipclatous fevers, which arejuftly ranked among the exanthematous kind, the blood and hu- mours being in an intenfe motion, an acrid ferum of a fulphu- reous and cauftic nature is, by that means, propelled to the furface of the body, and produces a fw el ling, accompany Y» with rednefs, heat, and pain.

This fever is far from being innocent and fimplc r as it is gene- 1 rally thought, and is often violent and dangerous, nay mor- tal, and, in fome cafes, appears to be nearly allied to pefti- lential fevers, the moft formidable of all diforders. The fymptoms in both are of the fame kind, and on the third or fourth day the morbid matter in both is thrown out to the fur- face, and the violence of the fymptoms on. this fomewhafi abates. But the great difference is, that the one is conta- gious, the other not fo, arid the peftilential is much more fatal than the other ufually is found to be. Phyficians diftinguifh the Eryfipelas into two kinds, the fim- ple, and the fcorbutic. The Ample or genuine Eryfipelas. affects only die furface of the body, and eafily gives way to proper remedies, in a fhort time ; but the fpurious, or fcor- butic kind, is more deeply rooted, and hard to be removed. There is alfo a third kind, called an exulccrated Eryfipelas? in which the eruptions are yellow, and contain an acrid pun- gent humour, which gives a terrible gnawing pain. This- difeafe affects every part of the body, but particularly the face,, and happens at all times of the year, but moft frequently at the clofe of fummer. It fometimes fprcads over the whole face, and fwells and inflames it in fuch a manner as to endan- ger fuftocation. It often feizes people in a moment, while they are abroad, and is called by the country people a blaft j it, in reality, differs very little from the effects of the flings of wafps and bees, except that the heats often rife into puftules. One kind of Eryfipelas wholly refembles the flinging of net- tles ; this is ufually brought on by drinking, and is very trou- blefome, the pimples appearing and difappearing at times, fometimes for a long while together.

However mild the more common kinds of this difordcr may naturally be, yet ill management will makG even the flighteft of them dangerous, and the ftriking the eruptions in has been often known to be of fatal confequence, Hoffman mentions a patient he knew, who by taking a vomit, and a draflic purge, in the time of the eruption, had an inflammation of the ftomach brought on, and died in a few days. In many kinds of the Eryfipelas, nature does much, and, with a little proper affiftance, the whole terminates kindly in a fhort time ; but the bad kinds, nay, and too often the beft, when treated unfkilfully, turn to violent burning fevers, and the eruptions to gangrenes.

The true method of curing an Eryfipelas confifts in three Intentions j firft, that the febrile motion of nature be by no means hinder'd, but rather promoted, if it be found defective, and only reduced to a due temperament, if exceflive. Se- condly, that the fubtle cauftic matter be corrected, and pre- pared for fecretion and excretion ; and thirdly, that the in- flammatory ftagnation of putrid and cauftic lymph in the ex- ternal parts be difcufled, and perfectly expelled. Bleeding in an Eryfipelas is fometimes beneficial, fometimes hurtful, and a good general rule is to order it in plethoric habits, and per- fons accuftomed to drink fpirituous liquors, but to forbid it in others. When the inflammation is mild and gentle, it may fometimes be removed by external warmth alone, but when it is more violent, it requires the help of interna!, and fome- times external remedies: Of the internal kind, thzmixturafim- plsx is ons ftanding gggd medicine, and of the external, an

oin>