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CHAP. 75.—SACOPENIUM, OR SAGAPENON: THIRTEEN REMEDIES.

The sacopenium which grows in Italy is totally different from that which comes from beyond sea. This last, in fact, is similar to gum ammoniac, and is known as "sagapenon."1

2Sacopenium is good for pains of the sides and chest, for convulsions, coughs of long standing, expectorations, and swellings of the thoracic organs: it is a cure also for vertigo, palsy, opisthotony, affections of the spleen and loins, and for shivering fits. For suffocations of the uterus, this plant is given in vinegar to smell at; in addition to which, it is sometimes administered in drink, or employed as a friction with oil. It is a good antidote, also, for medicaments of a noxious nature.

1 Or Sagapenum. This is a fetid gum-resin, imported from Persia and Alexandria, and supposed, though without sufficient proof Fée says, to be the produce of the Ferula Persica. It is occasionally used in medicine as a stimulating expectorant. In odour it somewhat resembles assafœtida, only it is much weaker. Galen speaks of it as the produce of a Ferula. It acts also as a purgative and a vermifuge.

2 See B. xii. c. 56, and B. xix. c. 52. Some writers have supposed, but apparently without any sufficient authority, that this is the Ferula communis of Linnæus. Fée is of opinion that one of the Umbelliferæ is meant.

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