Enquire within upon everything by Robert Kemp Philp

716. Gentian

Gentian is an excellent tonic and stomachic; but when given in large doses, it acts as an aperient. It is _used internally_ in all cases of general debility, and when combined with bark is used in intermittent fevers. It has also been employed in indigestion, and it is sometimes used, combined with sal volatile, in that disease; but, at other times alone, in the form of infusion. After diarrhoea, it proves a useful tonic. Its infusion is sometimes applied _externally_ to foul ulcers. _Dose_, of the _infusion_, one and a half to two ounces; of the _tincture_, one to four drachms; of the _extract_, from ten to thirty grains.