Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/691

 .GENTIAN GENTIAN, in medicine, the root of the plant gentiana lutea, growing wild in the mountain- ous portions of Europe, and imported into the United States from Germany. Some other species are also used for medicinal purposes. GENTILES 679 Gentiana lutea. One of these, known as the blue gentian (G. Catesbc&i), is found in the grassy swamps of the Oarolinas, and so closely resembles in its prop- erties the officinal gentian, that it is used at the south, and is introduced into the catalogue of the United States pharmacopeia. Its flowers are blue ; those of the foreign gentian are yel- low, which is also the color of the powdered root. Both have at first a sweetish taste, followed by intense bitterness ; and both yield their medicinal qualities to water and alcohol. Its bitter principle, called gentiopicrine, is sol- uble in water and alcohol, and is neither an acid nor an alkaloid, but ranks as a glucoside. The Swiss and Tyrolese macerate the plant in cold water, and the sugar it contains causing it to ferment on standing, they distil from it a spirituous liquor, bitter and unpleasant, but much used by them. As a tonic it has been used from remote times, and the name is said to have been given to it from Gentius, a king of Illyria. It is found as an ingredient in many of the ancient receipts transmitted from the Greeks and Romans. Its effects closely resemble those of the other pure bitters, such as quassia and Colombo. In small doses and in suitable cases it increases the appetite, and invigorates digestion. In large doses, or in cases to which it is not adapted, it is liable to disagree with the stomach, exciting nausea and irritating the bowels, and cannot therefore be administered without due reference to the condition of these organs. It is given in pow- der, in extract, infusion, tincture, or sirup. The powder has been used as an external application to ulcers. In convalescence from fevers and acute diseases, when there is little appetite and a feeble digestion, gentian often in- creases the former and aids the latter. It is not well borne when there is any irritation or in- flammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach. The tincture contains a large pro- portion of alcohol, and its physiological and therapeutical value is affected by this ingre- dient, whose presence should not be forgotten by those who take or administer it. A cra- ving for ardent spirits maybe engendered by the long continued use of tincture of gentian and similar tinctures. Besides the native gentian mentioned above, there are several others found in the Atlantic states, among the most conspic- uous of which is the closed gentian, 0. An- drewsii; the inflated club-shaped blue corolla of this species never opens at the mouth. One of the most beautiful of all wild flowers is the fringed gentian, G. crinita, a much-branched annual or biennial species found in low grounds in autumn ; the corolla is about two inches long, the tube and its elegantly fringed lobes of a Gentiana Andrewsii. deep sky-blue. The alpine gentians, G. acau- lis, G. sterna, G. Pyrenaica, and others, which are among the gems of European flower gar- dens, are rarely seen in this country, as our soils become too dry in summer to suit their alpine nature. GENTILES (the equivalent of the Heb. goyim and Gr. Idvoi), the name by which the Jews distinguished all other nations or gentes from themselves. In its religious bearing it nearly corresponded to our word heathen ; for all who were not Jews, and circumcised, they regarded as excluded from all the religious privileges and relations by which they were so greatly exalted. In the writings of St. Paul the gentiles are generally denoted as Greeks. The court of the gentiles about the temple was the outer space, marked off by a wall or balustrade breast high, within which strangers were forbidden to enter, though they might come as far as the barrier to present their offerings. This explains the meaning of Paul,