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AMERICAN
MEDICAL BOTANY,
BEING A COLLECTION
NATIVE  MEDICINAL PLANTS
              OF THE
       UNITED STATES,
CONTAINING THEIR
BOTANICAL HISTORY AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS,

         AND PROPERTIES AND USES
                  IN
      MEDICINE, DIET AND THE ARTS,
         COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.


      BY JACOB BIGELOW, M. D.
RUMTORD PROFESSOR AND LECTURER ON MATERIA MEDICA AND BOTAWT
           IN HARTARD UNITERSITI.
VOL. I. t;
co Li-a    -
            BOSTON: ^Ur.frX^y
                        o
PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS AND HILLIARD, AT THE
    BOSTON BOOKSTORE, NO. 1, CORNHILL.
     UNIVERSITY PRESS....HILLIARD AND METCAIP.
              1817. 
District of Massachusetts, to wit:
                                                  District Clerk's office.
   Be it remembered, that on the eighteenth  day of October, A. D. 1817,
and in the forty second year of the independence of the United States of Ameri-
ca, Jacob Bigelow, M. D. of the said district, has deposited in this office the
title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the  words follow-
ing, viz.
   " American Medical Botany,  being a collection of the native medicinal
plants of the United States containing  tlieir botanical history and  chemical
analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts, with coloured
engravings.  By Jacob  Bigelow, M. D. Rumford Professor and Lecturer on
Materia Medica  and Botany in Harvard University.  Vol. I."
   In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States,  entitled
" An act for the  encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of  maps,
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during  the
times therein  mentioned;"  and also to an act, entitled, " An act supplement
tary to an act, entitled, An act for the  encouragement of learning, by secur-
ing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of
such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the  benefits
thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other
prints."
                  J NO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the district of Massachusetts. 
                        TO THE

 REV. JOHN  THORNTON KIRKLAND,
                     D.D.  LL.D.
    PRESIDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN CAMBRIDGE,
                    MASSACHUSETTS.
DEAR SIR,
   The  present  flourishing  state of the Institution,  over
which you  preside, cannot be ascribed to any  more effi-
cient cause, than to the zeal  and ability, with which you
have watched over its interests.
    Those, who in  any measure derive from this  Institution
their opportunities of being useful, may with justice direct
their  first acknowledgments to you.
    Being confident, that no attempt for the promotion of
useful knowledge will  be regarded by  you  with  indiffer-
ence, I  am  happy in offering to you, in the present vol-
ume,  a  testimony of my  respect and esteem.
                                                   J.  B.
    Boston,  October, 1817. 
 
PREFACE.
   Having long meditated the  commencement
of a work  on the medicinal vegetables  of the
United States, and feeling myself obligated for its
completion, by the instructions from the Univer-
sity in which I have the honor to  hold a professor-
ship ; it may be proper to make at the outset some
general statements of the motives and objects of
such a publication.
   The Materia  Medica,  comprising the great
body of medicinal agents now in use in the hands
of physicians, cannot be said to need an increase
in the number of its articles.  It is  already  in-
cumbered with many superfluous drugs ; even its
active substances  are more numerous than can be
of use to any one physician, so that it seems quite
as susceptible of  benefit from  reduction as  from
augmentation in  the number of its  materials.
Under these circumstances, the  introduction of
new medicines can  only  be authorized, where 
VI                 PREFACE.
from the peculiarity of tlieir powers, or the facili-
ty of their acquisition, they are calculated to take
the place of others previously in use.
   Of our present stock of medicinal agents,  col-
lected  from various parts of the globe, a few ap-
pear to be unique in their powers, and could not
in the  present state of our knowledge, be super-
seded by other substances.  A number more pos-
sess active properties, yet of a kind, for which sub-
stitutes might be found among the native produc-
tions of almost every country into which they are
imported.  There are others which possess little
activity or value, but which,  from a sort of fashion,
are still articles of commerce and consumption.
    In  the management of diseases, the physician
requires  instruments of determinate power, on the
operation of which, he may  build definite expec-
tations.  Many such  are already in his hands.
Yet when we consider how small a portion of the
vegetable kingdom has been medically examined,
there  can  be  little doubt  that a  vast number
of active  substances, many perhaps of specific effi-
cacy, remain  for future inquirers  to  discover.
In this respect, every successive age is making
acquisitions.   But a century or two  ago,  the  civ-
ilized world were unacquainted with the proper-
ties of ipecacuanha, of jalap, and the  Peruvian 
                   PREFACE.                vil
bark.  The powers of digitalis in certain diseas-
es are of  very recent observation.  At the pres-
ent day, we are speculating on the probable com-
position of a vegetable medicine, which cures the
gout.
    Medicinal substances frequently owe their first
introduction to accident.  Many have been at first
brought up as antidotes for the poison of serpents,
as remedies for  syphilis, or as specifics  agaiust
imaginary diseases.  Previously to this, they were
neglected  as useless,  or avoided as dangerous.
It is a subject of some curiosity to consider, if the
knowledge of the present  Materia Medica were
by any means to be lost, how many of the  same
articles would  again rise into notice  and  use.
Doubtless a variety of new substances would de-
velop unexpected powers, while perhaps the  pop-
py would be shunned as  a deleterious plant, and
the cinchona might grow unmolested  upon the
mountains of Quito.
    It is the policy of every country to convert as
far as possible its own  productions  to  use,  as a
mean of multiplying its resources, and diminish-
ing its tribute to foreigners.   The  plants of the
United States are various in their character in
proprotion to the extent of latitudes and climates,
which our country embraces.  Among those which 
 Vili                PREFACE.
 have been  medicinally investigated, are many of
 usefulproperties and decided efficacy.  Several de-
 partments of the Materia Medica may be amply
 supplied from our own forests and meadows, al-
 though there are others, for which we must as yet
 depend on  foreign countries.   We have yet to dis-
 cover our anodynes and our emetics,  although
 we abound in bitters, astringents, aromatics and
 demulcents.  In the present state of our  knowl-
 edge we  could not well dispense with  opium and
ipicacuanha, yet a great number of foreign drugs,
 such as gentian, colnmbo, chamomile, kino, cat-
echu, cascarilla, canella, §c. for which we pay
a large  annual tax to other countries, might in
all probability be superceded by the  indigenous
products of our own.   It is certainly  better that
our own country people should have the benefit
of collecting such articles,  than that we should
pay for them to the  Moors  of  Africa,  or the  In-
dians of Brazil.
   Independent of the frauds of adulteration,
which may be practised by savages  upon  drugs,
whose origin is hardly  known  to  Europeans, the
embarrassments occasioned by the chances of war
and commercial restrictions, form serious objec-
tions to an exclusive dependence on foreign med-
icines.   It  is but a few years since some circum- 
                    PREFACE.                 IX
 stances of this sort occasioned a sudden and enor-
 mous rise in the price of opium, and a general in-
 quiry, what could be substituted for opium  when
 the usual supplies should have failed.
    In  a work like the present, although we can-
 not hope to supply all the desiderata of an indi-
 genous Materia Medica; yet it will be satisfacto-
 ry to have done something towards an investiga-
 tion of the real properties of our most interesting
 plants, and to have facilitated a knowledge of them
 in those, to whom they may be useful.  In a pur-
 suit of this kind, the botanist has views  even be-
 yond the physician.   To him it is important not
 only to know  what plants have properties, that are
 eminently useful, but also to know, what are the
 properties and uses  of all the plants which sur-
 round him.   In  proportion  as inquiries of this
 sort are pursued, the natural  resources of a coun-
 try become  developed, and its natural disadvanta-
 ges compensated.  We are told that in China ev-
 ery  plant is  applied to some valuable  purpose,
 and  there is scarcely a weed  that  has not its de-
 terminate use.*   A learned authorf observes, that
 "no writer  whatever has rendered the natural
productions  of the happiest  and most luxuriant
climate of the globe, half so interesting or instruc-
   * Macartney's Embassy, vol. ii. chap. n.    f Sir J. E. Smith.
                  i 
X                   PREFACE.
tive, as Linnaeus has made those of his own north-
ern country."
    Under the title of American Medical Bota-
ny, it is my intention to offer to the  public a se-
ries of coloured engravings of those native plants,
which possess properties deserving the attention
of medical practitioners.  The plan will likewise
include  vegetables of particular utility in diet and
the arts ; also poisonous plants which must be
known, that they may be avoided.   In making the
selection, I have  endeavoured to be  guided by
positive evidence of important qualities, and not
by  the  insufficient testimony of popular report.
In treating of each plant, its botanical history will
be given ; the result of such chemical examina-
tions as  I have been able to make of  its constitu-
ent parts,  and lastly its medical  history.   The
botanical account will be found more  diffuse than
is  necessary for exclusive botanists.  The chem-
ical inquiries  are made chiefly with a view to the
pharmaceutical  preparations of each plant, or to
interesting principles it may contain.   Its medic-
al history will contain  such facts, relative to its
operation on the human system, as are known to
me from my  own observation, or the evidence of
those, who are qualified to form correct opinions
on  the subject. 
                   PREFACE.                  Xi
   I am by no means ambitious to excite an in-
terest in the subjects of this work, by exaggerated
accounts of virtues  which do not belong to them.
Much harm has been in medicine, by the partial
representations of  those, who, having a point to
prove, have suppressed their unsuccessful experi-
ments, and brought into view none  but favorable
facts.  If, from a desire of avoiding error, I have
not always  been able to establish fully the charac-
ter of a  native vegetable,  it will  be recollected
that  many foreign  drugs, which have been  for
centuries in use, have still an unsettled reputation
as to their  powers and modes of operating.

   The  figures of the present volume have been
engraved and  coloured  from original  drawings,
made principally by myself.  Dissections of  the
flower and fruit have been added  to each for  the
use of botanical students.   The subsequent por-
tions of the work will be  issued as  rapidly as^is
consistent  with their faithful execution.
   At the  end will be added an appendix or sup-
plement, containing  such facts relative to  the
plants already published, as may have  come to
light since  their publication. 
 
 
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AMERICAN
MEDICAL  BOTANY.
          DATURA STRAMONIUM.

                  Thorn Apple.

                    PLATE I.
    1 he  Datura Stramonium is a wandering an-
nual  plant, which follows the progress of culti-
vation, and is rarely found  remote from  the vi-
cinity of dwellings.  It occurs in every part of
the Atlantic coast from Maine to the Floridas,
and is also found in the Western States  in the
neighbourhood of settlements. Its favorite haunts
are the borders of fields and roadsides,  among
rubbish and in  neglected spots of rich ground.
It emigrates with great facility, and often springs
up in the  ballast of ships, and in earth carried
from one country to another.  This circumstance
in Europe  has  undeservedly given rise  to the
opinion, that it is originally  an American plant.
Its native country,  however, is  doubtful, from
                3 
IS          DATURA STRAMONIUM.
the want of authentic descriptions of sufficient
antiquity.  One of the oldest satisfactory accounts
of it is that of Gerarde in 1597, who has published
a description and figure of this plant, and states
that it was introduced into England by himself,
from seeds received fromConstantinople. [Note A.]
    Its common name  in Europe, derived from
the form of its fruit, is Thorn  apple.   In this
country its provincial names are Apple of Peru, Be-
viVs apple, and Jamestown weed.  It is a plant of
rank growth and luxuriant foliage, varying in height
from one to six feet, according to the soil in which
it grows.  In Carolina it begins to flower in May,
and in Massachusetts about the latter part of Ju-
ly,  and continues until the arrival of frosts.
    The Datura Stramonium belongs  to the first
order of the  fifth class in the Linnsean artificial
arrangement.   In  its natural order  it is found
among the Luridae of Linnaeus and the Solanese
of  Jussieu.    The following are  the  essential
marks which characterize the genus Datura.  The
corolla funnel form and plaited.   The calyx tu-
bular, angular and  deciduous.   The capsule four
valved,—Under this genus are comprehended a
number of species, a great part of which are na-
tives of warm  latitudes.  The species Stramoni-
um is distinguished from the  rest by the follow- 
                 THORN apple.               19
ing character. Capsules thorny, erect, ovate; leaves
ovate, angular, smooth.—A more particular de-
scription of the plant is as follows.  Stem erect,
simple at bottom, much branched at top by repeat-
ed forks, smooth or slightly pubescent, hollow in
the large plants, often solid in small ones.  Leaves
given off from the forks  of the stem, five or six
inches long, acute, irregularly sinuated and tooth-
ed, with large acute teeth and round sinuses, the
sides of the base extending unequally down the
petiole.  Flowers single, axillary, on short stalks,
erect or nodding.  Calyx  composed of one leaf,
tubular, with five angles and five teeth, deciduous
by breaking  off from its base.  Corolla funnel
shaped  with  a long tube, five  angled, its margin
waved and folded, and terminating in five acumi-
nate teeth.  Stamens growing to the tube  by their
filaments, with oblong erect anthers.  Germ su-
perior, hairy with the rudiments of spines, ovate ;
style as long as  the stamens;  stigma  obtuse,
parted  at base.   Capsule ovate, fleshy,  covered
with thorns, four valved, four  celled, opening at
top.   Seeds numerous, reniform, black, attached
to a  longitudinal receptacle, which occupies the
centre of each cell.
   At least two distinct varieties of Datura Stra-
monium are common  in the United States.  One 
 20          DATURA STRAMONIUM.
 of these has a green stalk and white flowers, and
 agrees with the figures of Sowerby and Woodville,
 except that the anthers are somewhat longer and
 the dissepiment of the capsule thinner.   The sec-
 ond variety, the one represented in our  figure,
 has  a  dark reddish stem, minutely  dotted  with
 green ; and purple flowers striped with deep pur-
 ple inside.   It is generally  a larger plant,  and its
 stem more  universally hollow.    This  variety is
 probably the D. tatula  of Linnaeus, answering to
 the description in the Species plantarum.    The
 distinguishing marks laid down between the two
 plants  are  not sufficient  to  make them distinct
 species.   I have cultivated both together and
watched them throughout their growth, without
being able to detect any difference except  in col-
 our.  Their sensible and medical properties are
the same.  Sir James Edward  Smith has lately
informed me, that on consulting the herbarium of
Linnaeus, the original specimens of D.  Stramoni-
um and tatula did not appear to be more than va-
rieties  of the same plant.  [Note B.]
   Every part of the Stramonium, when recent,
has a  strong, heavy, disagreeable odour,  and  a
bitter, nauseous taste.  Taken internally it  proves
 a violent narcotic poison, anecting the  mind and
 body in the most powerful  manner.   Its usual 
                 THORN APPLE.              31
consequences  when swallowed  in  considerable
quantity, are vertigo and  confusion of mind, in-
sensibility of the retina, occasioning dilatation of
the pupil and loss of sight, tremors of the limbs
and loss of the power of voluntary motion, head-
ach, dryness of the  throat, nausea and vomiting,
anxiety and faintness, and sometimes  furious de-
lirium.  If the  amount taken  be large  and not
speedily ejected from the stomach, the symptoms
pass into convulsions  or  lethargic stupor, which
continue till death.   When  not fatal, its effects,
like those of other  narcotics, are temporary, dis-
appearing in from one to two days, and frequent-
ly in a shorter period.—The remedies to be re-
sorted to in cases of poison from Stramonium, are
a prompt emetic, followed  by a free use of vegeta-
ble acids and strong coffee.
    Many stories have been related of the power
of this and other species  of Datura  to produce
mental alienation, without at the same time ma-
terially affecting the body. [Note C]  These ac-
counts are generally of somewhat ancient date, and
not correspondent with the observations  of later
physicians.  They were suited to those  days of
credulity, in which the Royal Society of London
gravely inquired of Sir Philberto Yematti, "Wheth-
er the Indians  can k so prepare the  stupifying 
gg           DATURA STRAMONIUM.
herb Datura, that they make it lie several days,
months, or years, according as they will have it,
in a man's body 5 and at the end  kill him with-
out missing half an hour's time ?"
   Like opium  and like other powerful  medi-
cines, this plant, when  taken  in  small quantity,
and under suitable regulations, proves  a remedy
of importance, and a useful agent in the hands of
physicians.  In  common with some other narco-
tics, it seems first to have been introduced freely
into practice by Baron Storck of Vienna, as  a rem-
edy in Mania, Epilepsy, Convulsions, £jc.  Many
subsequent physicians have given testimony to its
efficacy in certain forms of these disorders, yet the
instances of its  failure have doubtless been more
frequent than those of its success.  In Murray's
 Apparatus Medicaminum may be found a sum-
 mary  of  the reports of many medical men, who
 have tried it with various success in  the diseases
 in question, as well as in others.  Dr.  Cullen has
 no doubt that it may be a remedy in  certain ca-
 ses of mania and epilepsy ; but doubts if any  per-
 son has learned to distinguish the cases to which
 it is properly adapted.
     Dr. Fisher, President of the Massachusetts
 Medical Society, has published in their communi-
  cations some remarks on the employment of Stra- 
                THORN APPLE.              23
monium in  epilepsy.  He divides the  cases  of
that disease  into three kinds ; those of which the
fits return daily;  those in which they  recur  at
regular periods, as monthly, or  give  warning of
tlieir  approach  by previous symptoms ;  lastly,
those in which they do not observe  any regular
period, and do not  give any warning of  their ap-
proach.  In the two first kinds he asserts, that all
the cases which came under his  care, and which
were not very few, had been cured by Stramoni-
um.  In those of the third kind he found it of no
benefit whatever.
    Dr. Archer of  Maryland has formed distinc-
tions nearly similar in the application of Stramo-
nium to epilepsy.
    In a  case of Tic doloureux of long standing I
found the extract, taken in as  large doses as the
stomach would bear, to afford decided relief.  Sev-
eral practitioners have spoken to  me of its  effica-
cy in this formidable disease.   It should  be ta-
ken in large doses, and the system kept for some
time under its influence.
    Within a few years, the thorn apple has at-
tracted  much notice, both in Europe and  in this
country, as  an efficacious  palliative  in  Asthma
and some other affections  of the lungs, when used
by  smoking, in the same  manner  as  tobacco. 
24          DATURA STRAMONIUM.
The practice was first suggested by the employ-
ment  of another species, the  Batura ferox, for
similar complaints, in the East Indies.  An En-
glish gentleman, having exhausted the stock with
wluch he had been supplied of the oriental plant,
was advised by Dr. Sims  to have recourse to the
common Stramonium as a substitute ; and  upon
trial, experienced the same benefit as he had done
from the  former species.  This instance of suc-
cess led to further trials, and in a short time sev-
eral publications appeared, containing cases of
great relief afforded by smoking this plant in the
paroxysms of Asthma.  Many  individuals, of dif-
ferent ages, habits, and constitutions, had used it
with the effect of producing immediate relief, and
of terminating the paroxysm  in a  short  time.
The efficacy however of this medicine was called
in question by Dr. Bree, a physician well known
by his elaborate treatise on Asthma, who publish-
ed in the Medical  and Physical Journal a letter,
containing the result of a great number of unsuc-
cessful trials of Stramonium in asthmatic cases.
It may be doubted  whether any  other physician
has been so unfortunate  in its use as Dr. Bree
since  he affirms that not one case of those under
his care was benefitted by it.  Certain it is, that in
this country the  thorn apple is employed with 
                 THORN APPLE.              Q5
very frequent success by asthmatic patients, and
it would not be difficult to designate a dozen indi-
viduals in Boston and its vicinity, who are in the
habit of  employing it with unfailing relief in the
paroxysms of this distressing complaint.  The ca-
ses, which it  is fitted to relieve, are those of pure
spasmodic asthma, in which it doubtless acts by
its sedative and antispasmodic effects.   In those
depending upon effusion of serum  in  the lungs,
or upon the presence of exciting  causes in the
first passages,  or  elsewhere, requiring to be
removed ; it must not be expected that remedies
of this class can afford benefit.   In several cases
of  plethoric  and intemperate  people,  I have
found  it fail altogether, and venesection after-
wards to give speedy relief.
    The part of the plant, which I have employed
for smoking, is the leaf prepared in the same way
as tobacco.  The root, which has commonly been
the part used, is more woody and fibrous, and pos-
sesses less of the juices  of the plant, than its
more pulpy and succulent parts.   The root also,
being strictly annual, has no opportunity to accu-
mulate the virtues of  the plant, beyond any other
part.
    In the seventh volume of the Medico-Chirur-
gical Transactions, for 1816,  is a  paper on the
               4 
 26          DATURA STRAMONIUM.
 properties of the Stramonium  by Dr. Marcet of
 London, Physician to Guy's Hospital.  As the
 result of his experience, it appeared  that this
 medicine taken  internally  had  relieved   acute
 pains of various  kinds more effectually than any
 other narcotic substance.  Its usual effects under
 his observation, when administered in appropriate
 doses, in chronic diseases  attended with  acute
 pain; were, to lessen powerfully and almost imme-
 diately  sensibility and pain;  to  occasion  a sort
 of nervous shock, which  is frequently  attended
 with a momentary affection of the head  and eyes,
 with a degree of nausea, and with phenomena re-
 sembling those produced  by intoxication ; to ex-
 cite in many  instances  nervous sensations, which
 are referred to the oesophagus or bronchiae or fau-
 ces, and which sometimes  amount to a sense like
 suffocation ;  to have rather  a relaxing, than an
astringent effect on the bowels ; to have  no mark-
 ed influence  on the pulse, except in a few instan-
 ces to seem  to render  it slower; to  produce but
 a transitory  and  inconsiderable dilatation of the
 pupil, and to  have but little  immediate  tendency
 to produce sleep, except from  the state of com-
 parative serenity  and ease, which follows the pre-
 ceding symptoms.—In some instances  its bene-
 ficial effects  were obtained without the patient
 experiencing any of the uneasy sensations above
 mentioned. 
                 THORN APPLE.               %7
   The cases in which Dr. Marcet employed the
Stramonium, with their  results, appear in the fol-
lowing summary.  In four cases of Sciatica, decid-
ed benefit was obtained.   The efficacy of the med-
icine was still more strongly marked in two cases
of sciatica  combined with syphilitic pains.  It
failed in two instances of diseased hip joint.  It
produced considerable relief of pain in a case of
supposed disease of the spine, followed by para-
plegia ;  and likewise in one  of cancer  of the
breast.   It allayed materially the pain occasioned
by an acute uterine disease.  It was of great and
repeated utility in a case of Tic doloureux, its util-
ity in a second case of  the same description was
very doubtful, and in a third it entirely failed.
   There are some authorities for the success of
Stramonium in Chorea.   Professor Chapman of
Philadelphia has found it of use in dysmenorrhea,
also  with or without mercury in syphilitic and
scrophulous ulcers of ill condition.
   The external  use  of Stramonium is of much
older date than its internal exhibition.  Gerarde
in his Herbal,  published in 1597, says,  " The
iuyce of Thorne apples, boiled with hog's grease
to the forme of an unguent or salve, cureth all in-
flammations whatsoever, all manner of burnings or
scaldings, and  that in  very  short time, as my- 
 28          DATURA STRAMONIUM.
 self have found by my dayly practise, to my great
 credit and profit."  Others, since the time  of Ge-
 rarde, have used this preparation, if not with the
 same gratifying success, at least with some bene-
 fit  as an  anodyne, sedative application.  It miti-
 gates the pain in burns and inflammatory tumors,
 and promotes the cure of certain cutaneous erup-
tions.  In some irritable ulcers with thickened
edges and a sanious discharge, I have found it re-
markably  efficacious in changing the  condition
and promoting the granulations and cicatrization.
In  painful hemorrhoidal tumors the ointment of
Stramonium with the ointment of acetate of lead
gives, in many cases, very prompt and satisfacto-
ry relief, being  in  this respect inferior  to  no ap-
plication, with which I have been acquainted.
    Applied topically to  the eye, the preparations
 of Stramonium diminish the sensibility of the re-
 tina, and relax  the iris.   From this  effect it  is
 employed by many surgeons to dilate the pupil,
 as preparatory to the operation for cataract.
    The virtues of Stramonium appear to be seat-
 ed in an extractive principle, which dissolves  in
 water and alcohol, but  most readily  in the  for-
 mer.   It is  copiously precipitated from the infu-
 sion by muriate of tin.   With sulphate of  iron it
 gives a deep green colour, and  with  gelatin suf- 
                 THORN APPLE.              $9
fers no change.   Water distilled from the plant
has the sensible qualities in a slight degree, but
does- not seem to possess the medicinal powers af
the plant.  Dr. S. Cooper, in a valuable disserta-
tion on this plant, says, that an ounce of the dis-
tilled water was taken into the stomach with little
or no effect.   The same  gentleman  states, that
upon evaporating the infusion of Stramonium, he
observed a large  number  of minute crystals, re-
sembling particles of nitre.  Thinking it possible
that these  might be something analogous  to the
crystals, said to be obtained by Derosne from opi-
um, and by him denominated the narcotic princi-
ple, I repeated the experiment by carefully evap-
orating separate decoctions of the green and dri-
ed leaves.   No crystals however were discovera-
ble at any stage of the  process, either to the
touch, or to the  eye assisted by a strong  magni-
fier.
   The forms in which the Stramonium  is prepar-
ed for use are the powder, the inspissated juice,
the extract, the tincture and the ointment.   The
powder should be made as soon as the plant  is
dry, and kept in close  stopped bottles.—The in-
spissated juice is  made by compressing  the bruis-
ed leaves in a strong bag, until the juice is forced
out  This is to  be  evaporated in flat  vessels  at 
30           DATURA STRAMONIUM.
the heat of boiling salt water to the thickness of
honey; it is then suffered to cool, put up in glaz-
ed vessels and moistened with alcohol.  The ex-
tract is prepared by immersing a pound of the
leaves in three gallons of water and boiling down
to one.  The decoction  should then  be strained
and stand six hours to settle, after which it may
be drawn off and evaporated to the proper consis-
tence.  When the seeds are used, the decoction
should stand a longer time to separate the oil with
which the cotyledons abound, before evaporation.
A larger amount of extract may be obtained by
boiling the portion,  which has  been  used, a  se-
cond time in a  smaller quantity of  water,  and
mixing  the  two decoctions  before evaporation.
For the tincture one ounce of the dried leaves is
to be digested for a week in  eight ounces of proof
spirit, and nitrated through  paper.   In making
the ointment, a  pound of the fresh leaves may be
simmered in three pounds of hog's lard until the
leaves  become  crisp. It is  then to be strained,
and cooled gradually.
    The period  for  gathering the leaves is  from
the time the plant begins to flower, until the ar-
rival of frost.
    As the preparations  of Stramonium  are liable
to vary in strength according to the circumstances 
                  THORN APPLE.               31

under which they are made, it is always prudent
to begin with the  smallest dose, and repeat it
about three  times a  day, increasing each dose un-
til the effects begin  to appear in the stomach or
head.
    The commencing doses  of the  Stramonium,
when properly prepared, are as follows.
Of the powdered leaves           1 grain.
       powdered seeds           t a  grain.
       inspis sated juice or extract 1 grain.
       extract of the seeds       from -J to L grain.
       tincture                  from 15 to 20
                                        drops.



            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Datura Stramonium, Linnjbus Sp. pi. Fl. Suec. 185 8fC—
Gronovius Fl. Virg, 23.—(Eder. FL Danica 436.—Black-
well t. 313.—Gmelin Iter i. 43.—Pollich. Palatin. 224.—
Hoffmann Germ. 77.—Roth Fl.  Germ. i. 92 $c.—Woodville
t. 124.—Curtis Loud. vi. t. 17.—Smith Fl. Brit. 254.—Engl.
Bot.  t. 1288.—Pursh Amer.  141.—Elliott Carol, i. 275..—
Stramonium foliis angulosis &c. Haller Hclv. 586. Nuci inetel-
1» congener planta, Camerarius Epitome 276.—Solanum fceti-
da porno spinoso, oblongo, &c. Bauhinjhw. 168.—Stramonium
spinosum, Gerarde Herbal 348.

             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Storck de Stramonio Sfc.—Lindenstolpe de venenis, 531.—
Salvages Nosol. 2. 430.—Gredlng in Ludwigs Adversaria i.
145.__Murray App. Med. i. 670.—Cullen Mat. Med. ii. 281.—
Fowler in Med. Comment, v. 161.—Odhelius cit. in Med. Com-
ment v. 161.—Papin in Phil. Trans, abr. vi. 53.—Rush in Philad. 
42
DATURA STRAMONIUM.
Trans, i. 384.—Schoepf. 24.—Wedenberg in Med. Comment
iii. 18.—Beverly, Hist. Virg. p. 121.—Medical and Physical
Journal, vol. xxv. & xxvi. in various places.  Cooper in CaldweWs
Theses, vol. i.—Bartow, Coll. Mat. Med. 46.—Chapman in edit.
Murray 146.—Thatcher, Disp. 205.—Marcet Medico-Chi-
rur. Trans, vii.
                       PLATE I.

Fig. 1. A branch of Datura Stramonium, the purple variety, with
       leaves and flowers.

Fig. 2. Stamens and style.

Fig. 3. Transverse section  of the pericarp, shewing the cells, re-
       ceptacles and seeds. 
 
PI./I.

Fiv.ll.
C ■uA-'ih'f/'t-M    //s&fc/eWfa' 
     EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM.


               Thorough wort.


                  PLATE II.

    JL he peculiar form and arrangement of the
leaves in this plant render it very easy of distinc-
tion at sight by the most inexperienced botanist.
It flowers from midsummer to September, and is
found in all latitudes from Nova Scotia to Florida.
It inhabits  meadows  and  boggy soils, growing
most frequently in bunches, the stems being con-
nected by horizontal roots.  Its common names
are  Thorough tvort, Thorough wax,  Cross tvort,
Bone set, §c.
    The genus Eupatorium, belonging to the first
order of the class Syngenesia or Compound flow-
ers, and to the  order Corymbiferae of Jussieu, is
characterized by  its naked receptacle, its down
simple or rough, its  calyx oblong  and imbricate,
                5 
34        EUPAT0RU3I PERFOLIATUM.
its style longer than  the  corolla, and  cloven  half
way down.  The species perfoliatum, exclusively
an inhabitant  of America, is  abundantly distin-
guished from  the rest, by the peculiar form of its
leaves, indicated in its name.   Michaux has alter-
ed the specific  name to connatum I think injudi-
ciously.
    The stems of this plant are erect, round, hairy
branched at top only.  The leaves, which are per-
forated  by the  stem, are rather perfoliate than
connate, since they have not the character  of two
leaves joined together, but of one entire leaf,  hav-
ing its four principal veins proceeding at right an-
gles from  the  four quarters of the  stem,  two  of
them being situated  in the place of the supposed
junction.  The upper leaves however are  gener-
ally divided into  pairs.  The  main leaves are
acuminate, decreasing gradually in breadth from
the stem, where they are w idest, to the extremities.
They are serrated, wrinkled, pale underneath, and
hairy, especially on the veins.  Flowers in corymbs
with hairy peduncles.  Calyx cylindrical,  imbri-
cate, the scales lanceolate, acute, hairy.  Each ca-
lyx contains about twelve or fifteen florets,  which
are tubular, with fine spreading segments, and sur-
rounded with a rough down.  The stamens in each
consist of five  soft filaments, with blackish anthers 
THOROUGH WORT.
35
united with a tube.  Style filiform, divided into
two  branches,  which  project  above the flower.
Seeds oblong on a naked receptacle.
    Every part of the Eupatorium has an intense-
ly bitter taste, combined with a flavour peculiar to
the  plant, but without astringency or  acrimony.
The leaves and flowers abound in a bitter extrac-
tive matter, in which  the important quidities of
the plant seem to reside.   I find this principle to
be alike soluble in water and alcohol, imparting its
sensible qualities to both, and neither solution be-
ing rendered turbid, at least for some time, by the
addition of the other solvent. It forms copious pre-
cipitates with many of the metallic salts, such as mu-
riate of tin, nitrate of mercury, nitrate of silver, and
acetate of lead.   Of the mineral acids, the sulphu-
ric and muriatic form slight precipitates with the
aqueous decoction; the oxymuriatic,  a more copi-
ous  one ;  the nitric, in my experiments, gave no
precipitate, but changed the colour to a red.  In
the alcoholic solution the oxymuriatic alone form-
ed an immediate precipitate.  Tannin exists very
sparingly  in this plant.   A solution of isinglass
produced  a slight precipitate  from the tincture,
and a hardly perceptible turbidness in separate
decoctions of the leaves  and  flowers.  Sulphate
of iron gave a dark green precipitate, which par- 
 36          EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM.
 tially subsided in  a short  time.—In distillation,
 water came over very slightly affected with the
 sensible qualities of the plant, and not alterable
 by sulphate of iron.
   A dissertation  of merit  on this plant was pub-
lished a few years  since by Dr. Anderson of New
York, in which he gives the details of numerous
and elaborate chemical trials, made by him on dif-
ferent parts of the plant.  He concludes, among
other things, from his experiments, that  the ac-
tive  properties  of the  plant reside in greatest
quantity  in the leaves, and  that its virtues are
readily obtained by means  of a simple decoction.
   The medical powers of Eupatorium are such
 as its sensible properties would seem to indicate,
 those of  a tonic stimulant.   Given in moderate
 quantities, either in substance or in cold  infusion
 or decoction,  it promotes  digestion,  strengthens
 the viscera, and restores tone to the system.  Like
 other vegetable bitters, if given in large quantities,
 especially  in   warm infusion or decoction,  it
 proves  emetic, sudorific, and aperient.   Even in
 cold infusion it tends to bring on diaphoresis.
    This  plant has been long in use in  different
 parts of the United States, for the same purposes
 for which the Peruvian bark, Gentian, Chamomile,
 Sjc. are employed. It has been  found competent 
               THOROUGH WORT.             37
to the cure of intermittent fevers by various prac-
titioners in the middle and southern states.  Dr.
Anderson has detailed six cases of intermittents,
quotidian, tertian, and quartan, out  of a large
number which had been successfully treated with-
in his own observation by the Eupatorium both
in substance  and decoction.   In these  cases the
cures were certainly expeditious, and took place
at as early a  period as could have been expected
from arsenic  or the Peruvian bark.   Dr. A. cites
the experience of  several distinguished practi-
tioners, particularly Dr.  Hosack  of New York
and the late  Dr. Barton  of Philadelphia, in con-
firmation  of his own, to shew that the Eupatorium
is an  efficacious remedy in the treatment  of va-
rious  febrile  disorders, also  of many cutaneous
affections, and diseases of general debility.
    I have prescribed an  infusion of the Eupato-
rium in various instances to patients in the  low
stages of fever, w here it has appeared instrumen-
tal  in supporting the  strength and promoting a
moisture  of the skin, without  materially increas-
ing the  heat  of the body.  I have also  found the
cold infusion or decoction a serviceable tonic in
loss of appetite and  other  symptoms of dyspepsia,
as well  as in  general debility of the  system. 
38         EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM.

    The warm infusion is a  convenient substitute
for that of chamomile flowers  in facilitating the

operation of an emetic.
    When employed as a tonic, this plant may be
taken  in  powder in  doses  of twenty or  thirty
grains, or a teacup full may be used  of the infu-
sion, rendered moderately bitter.  When intend-
ed to act as an emetic, a strong decoction may be
made  from  an ounce of the  plant in a quart  of
water, boiled to a pint.


            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Eupatorium perfoliatum, Linnjeus, Sp. pi.—Aiton, Hort.
ICew. iii. 160.—Willdenow, Sp. pi. iii. 1761.—Gronovius,
Virg. 119.—Colden, Novebor. 181.—Stokes, iv. 171.—Pursh,
ii. 516.—Eupatorium connatum, Michaux, Fl. Amer. ii. 99.—
Eupatorium Virginianum, &c.—Plukenet, t. 87./. 6.—Rails,
suppl. 189.—Morison, hist. iii. 97.

             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Schoepf 121.—Guthrie in Annal. Med. iii. 403.—Bart.
Coll. 28.—Med. and Phys. Journal—Thacher Disp. 217.—An-
derson, Inaugural Thesis.

                     PLATE  II.

Fig. 1. Eupatorium perfoliatum..

Fig. 2. A flower magnified.

Fig. 3. A floret magnified.

 Fig. 4.  Tube of anthers with the style running through. 
 
ai  /j 
PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
                    Poke.


                  PLATE III.

   h rom the  testimony of different writers it
appears, that the Phytolacca decandra is an inhab-
itant not only of North  America, but likewise of
the south of Europe from Portugal to Greece, and
also of the Barbary  states in Africa.   Its origin
is probably American, since I find that it was so
considered in the time of Parkinson, who in  his
Theatrum  Botanicum,  published in  1640,  de-
nominates it " Solanum magnum Virginianum ru-
brum."   This is one of the oldest accounts I find
of it.  Plukenet conjectures it may be the Cuechi-
liz tomatl of Hernandez, but the description, like
most others of that loose and superficial writer,
are more promotive of obscurity than of knowledge,
and it is not easy to draw from it any satisfactory
evidence as to its Mexican origin.  [Note D.] 
40          PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
   In the autumnal months no plant among us is
more remarkable than the Phytolacca for its large
size, and the fine colour of its clusters of berries.
Its most general appellation is Poke, an abbrevia-
tion, perhaps, of Pocan, the name by which it was
known in Virginia a century ago.   In New Eng-
land it is more  frequently called Garget,  Cocum,
Jalap and Pigeon berries.
   Jussieu has arranged this genus  among  his
Atriplices, and Linnaeus with the Oleracew,
   The number of its stems and styles, place it in
the class  Becandria  and order Becagynia.   Its
generic character consists in  having no calyx, a
corolla of flve petals, and its berries superior with
ten cells and ten seeds.  The  species  decandra is
the only one which strictly agrees with its  class
and order, and is  known by  having ovate leaves,
acute at both ends, and its flowers with  ten stamens
and styles.
   The root of this plant is of large size, frequent-
ly exceeding a man's  leg in thickness, and is usu-
ally divided into two or three principal branches.
Its substance is fleshy and fibrous, and easily cut
or broken.   Internally it is distinctly marked with
concentric rings of considerable thickness, while
its outer surface is covered with a very thin brown-
ish bark, which seems to be little more than a cu- 
                     POKE.                 41
tide.  The stalks, which are annual, frequently
grow to the  height of six, and  even nine feet.
They are round, smooth, and very much branch-
ed.  When young, their usual  colour  is green,
but in most plants, after the berries have ripened,
they are of a fine purple.  The leaves are scatter-
ed, petioled, ovate-oblong, smooth on both  sides,
ribbed  underneath,  entire,  acute.  The flowers
grow on long pedunculated racemes opposite to
leaves.   Peduncles  nearly  smooth, angular, as-
cending.  Pedicels divaricated, sometimes branch-
ed, green, white, or purple, furnished with a small
linear bracte  at base, and two others in the mid-
dle.  Calyx none.   Corolla resembling a  calyx,
whitish, consisting of five round-ovate,  concave,
incurving  petals.   Stamens  ten,  rather shorter
than  the petals, with white, roundish, two lobed
anthers.  Germ greenish, round,  depressed, ten
furrowed.  Styles ten, short, recurved.  The flow-
ers are succeeded by long clusters of dark purple
berries, almost black, depressed or flattened, and
marked with ten furrows on the sides.
    The dried root is light  coloured  and spongy,
with a mild and somewhat sweetish taste. A part
of it is soluble both in water and alcohol, and nei-
ther of these  substances renders turbid  the  solu-
tion in the other, unless the solution has been in-
                    6 
42         PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
spissatedby long boiling.  The soluble portion ap-
pears neither resinous nor mucous.  It approach-
es most  nearly to extractive,  but has characters
somewhat peculiar to itself.  A decoction of the
root procured by boiling  for ten minutes in dis-
tilled water, exhibited  after filtration the follow-
ing results.   It was transparent, nearly colourless,
and did not alter litmus.  It gave no  precipitate
with the sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, oxymuriatic,
and acetous acids.   It gave no precipitate with the
sulphate of iron, but  formed a copious one  with
the nitrates  of  mercury and silver, and  the ace-
tate of lead.  Muriate of tin produced no effect at
first, but after  standing, a light  precipitate  took
place.   Pearl ash, lime water, and muriate of ba-
rytes rendered the solution turbid.   Acetate of
barytes  occasioned no  change.   Oxymuriate  of
lime formed an immediate precipitate.
    The cold infusion exhibited nearly the same
results as the decoction.  The alcoholic solution
underwent no  change  from muriate  of tin,  but
threw down a  dense precipitate with nitrate of
mercury.
    From the  above  experiments it appears that
the soluble principle  of the  Phytolacca differs
from common vegetable extractive, as defined bv
the chemists, in several respects, particularly in 
                    POKE.                  43
not being thrown down by  the  oxymuriatic or
other mineral acids, and  in  being but partially
affected by muriate of tin.
   In the Annates de  Chimie, vol. lxxii, is a  me-
moir on the  Chemical properties  of the  Phyto-
lacca decandra by M. Braconnot.  His  experi-
ments indicate the presence of au unusual quan-
tity of vegetable  alkali in this plant.  He found
that the ashes, procured by incinerating the stalks,
afforded nearly 67 per  cent, of dried alkaline car-
bonate, and 42 per cent, of pure  caustic potash-
This alkali in the plant is neutralized by an acid
having considerable  affinity  to  the malic, but
with a few shades of difference.   With lime and
lead malic acid forms flocculent precipitates, very
easily soluble in  distilled vinegar, but those  with
the phytolaccic  acid are  insoluble.  M. Bracon-
not thinks this acid may probably be a mean be-
tween the malic and oxalic acids, or an oxygeniz-
ed malic acid.
    The same memoir contains an examination of
the colouring matter in the berries of the Phyto-
lacca.  The juice of these berries is of a  very
fine, bright purple colour, but this  colour  is ex-
tremely fugacious and disappears  in a short time
from cloth or paper that has been tinged with it.
A few drops of lime water added to this purple 
 44         PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
juice change it to a yellow colour, but the small-
 est quantity of acid is sufficient to restore its pur-
 ple  hue.   Exposure to the  air or  large dilu-
 tions is sufficient to restore the  original purple.
    M. Braconnot considers the yellow liquor pro-
duced by the juice of these berries and lime wa-
ter as one of the most delicate tests  of the pres-
ence  of acid.  Into  two glasses he put  equal
quantities of the  juice made yellow and of an in-
fusion of litmus of equal depth of colour.   More
than sixty drops of a very weak acid were required
to redden the infusion of litmus, but less than fif-
teen restored the  purple colour of the Phytolacca.
Hence it  follows, that the  yellow liquor is four
times as  sensible to the  presence of  acid, as the
infusion of litmus.  It however requires to be us-
ed immediately after it  is prepared,  since  a few
hours cause a spontaneous change in it, which be-
gins with a precipitate, and ends with a depriva-
tion of colour.
    The effects produced on this purple colour by
other reagents were as follows.  Pure alkalis gave
it a yellow colour.  Alkaline subcarbonates  a vio-
let, that fades and becomes yellow by  standing.
Weak acids no perceptible  change.   Dilute oxy-
muriatic acid a  complete  deprivation  of colour
with white flocculi.   Alum nothing  at first, but 
                     POKE.                  45
 after some days, a very light red precipitate.   Mu-
 riate of lime no change.   Muriate of tin a red se-
 diment inclining to lilac, leaving the fluid colour-
 less.  Nitrate of lead a precipitate of the colour
 of wine lees.   Super oxided sulphate of iron, a
 dirtv violet.
    Many of the above experiments I have repeat-
 ed, and added others.  The yellow colour produc-
 ed by the  alkalis borders on green.  Pure stron-
 tian produces  the  same  change  as potash and
 lime.  Pure barytes wholly discharges the colour
 on standing a short time.   Acetate of lead forms
 a scarlet precipitate, leaving the liquid nearly col-
 ourless.
    The purple colour that tinges  the  cuticle  of
 the stalks of the Phytolacca is stated in the above
 memoir, to be of the same nature  as that in the
 berries, and to afford the same results.
   The taste of the berries is sweetish and nause-
 ous, leaving behind a very slight sense of acrimo-
 ny.  M. Braconnot, found that at a moderate tem-
 perature, the juice underwent the vinous fermen-
 tation, and yielded alcohol by  distillation.  Dr.
 Shultz procured from half a bushel of the berries
 six pints of spirit  sufficiently  strong to take fire
and burn with readiness. 
46          PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
   In its medicinal properties the root of the Phy-
tolacca  decandra approaches  nearer to ipecac-
uanha than any American vegetable, I have hith-
erto  examined.  From abundant experience,  the
result of many trials made in Dispensary practice,
I am satisfied that, when properly prepared, it
operates in the same doses and with the same cer-
tainty, as the South American emetic. Ten grains
of the powder will rarely remain on the stomach,
and twenty or thirty produce a powerful operation,
by erne sis and generally by catharsis.  In its mode
of operation, this medicine has some peculiarities,
a part of  which are favorable, others disadvanta-
geous.  Its advantages are, that it operates with
ease, and seldom occasions pain or cramp.  Its dis-
advantages are, 1. That it is slow in its effects,
frequently not  beginning to  operate  until  an
hour, and sometimes  two hours after it is taken.
2.  That  it  continues  to  operate for a  greater
length of time than is  usual for emetics, although
as far as I have been  able to  observe, it is readily
checked by an opiate.   These disadvantages how-
ever are not  constant.   I have repeatedly  known
it commence operating in fifteen minutes, and
cease after four or five ejections.  The  represen-
tations  of patients as  to any unpleasant feelings
 under its effects, are  not greater  than we  should 
                    POKE.                  47
naturally expect, when it is recollected, that no
emetic is altogether comfortable in its operation.
Dr. Fisher of Beverly* informs me that whenever
he has used the Phytolacca, it has performed its
duty as an emetic perfectly well, and that in one
patient, a female of irritable stomach,  in whom
previous  emetics had  always  excited  severe
spasms, ten grains of the Phytolacca operated ef-
fectually, and no spasm followed.
   I have  sometimes. observed slight narcotic
symptoms  during the operation of  Phytolacca,
particularly vertigo.   But others have not always
met with this symptom.  Dr. George Hayward of
this  town, who has had much experience with this
medicine, the results of which were communicat-
ed to the Linnaean society, and afterwards publish-
ed in the New  England  Journal, October  1817,
states that in doses of a scruple, he  never  notic-
ed any dizziness, or stupor from it, although he
had  always been particular in his  inquiries to
know  if any such  symptoms took  place.   The
above dose  was administered  by him in nearly
thirty cases, in all of which, except in one case, it
operated as an  emetic and cathartic,  usually three
or four times,  thoroughly, though  not severely,
generally commencing its operation  on the stom-
   *  Letter dated November, 1815. 
48          PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
ach in an hour, and rarely continuing longer than
four.  He found it to excite little  or no nausea
previous to  its operation, and though it made a
powerful impression  on the system, it never pro-
duced any disagreeable or unusual symptoms.
   Dr. Hayward also made trial of the powder of
the leaves,  which he found to possess the same
properties with that of the  root,  but to be less ef-
fectual and less certain in its operation.   He al-
so prepared a tincture, decoction, and wine of the
root; but all these were inferior  to the medicine
in substance, being less certain in their effect, and
sometimes  giving rise to troublesome symptoms.
    Dr. Shultz of  Pennsylvania,  author of  an in-
augural dissertation on the Phytolacca decandra,
gave  the expressed juice of the leaves, berries,
and roots, in considerable quantity to animals.   It
operated by emesis and catharsis, attended with
drowsiness.  The juice of the root was most active.
He also gave to a dog two ounces of the  spiritous
liquor distilled from  the berries.   It occasioned
nausea and drowsiness, with slight spasmodic mo-
 tions, but no vomiting.
    In the same dissertation, Dr. Shultz  refers to
 several instances of persons who had incautiously
 eaten large quantities of the root through mistake.
 Its  effects  were violent vomiting and  purging 
                    POKE.                  49
prostration of strength, and in some instances
convulsions.
    The  Phytolacca has had some reputation  in
the treatment of rheumatism.   Dr. Griffits, for-
merly a professor in the University of Pennsylva-
nia, found it of great use in Syphilitic rheumatism.
Dr. Hayward however states, that he derived  no
advantage from its employment in rheumatic  af-
fections.
    The young shoots of this vegetable are desti-
tute of medicinal qualities, and are  eaten in the
spring in some parts of the United States, as sub-
stitutes for asparagus.  At this time  the succus
proprius or returning juice of the plant is not yet
formed by exposure of the sap to the atmospheric
air, in the leaves.   The ripe berries are less nox-
ious than the green, and are devoured by several
species of birds.   In Portugal and in France they
were formerly employed to improve the colour of
red wines, until  the interference of government
became  necessary  to put a stop to  the prac-
tice.
    The  external application of Phytolacca has
been found useful in a  variety of cases, by its ac-
tion as a local stimulant.  The ointment and ex-
tract  have commonly been employed for this pur-
pose.  These preparations usually excite a sense of
                7 
00           PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.
heat and smarting on being first applied.   I have
cured cases of psora with the ointment,  and Dr.
Hayward states, that he found it successful in cas-
es where sulphur had failed.   A case  of tinia
capitis of twelve years' standing,  which had re-
sisted various kinds of treatment, was  also cured
by this application.
   The  Phytolacca is one  of those vegetables
which  has had  its  temporary reputation for the
cure of cancer.   For this purpose  it has  been re-
sorted  to in various parts of the world, and many
men of scieuce have been convicts to its  efficacy?
among whom were Dr. Colden and Dr. Franklin of
our country.  [Note E.]   But like other vegetable
specifics for cancer, it owes its character to an im-
perfect discrimination of that disease,  and a mis-
application of the name.   All that can be strictly
inferred from the various accounts we have had
on this subject, is, that the plant has often proved
useful in malignant ulcers by its stimulating and
almost escharotic effects, frequently producing an
eschar,  and thus altering the condition of the ul-
 cerated surface.
    For internal use no  preparation  of the Phyto-
 lacca is to be  preferred to the powder,  of which
 from ten to fifteen  grains is often a  sufficient
 emetic. 
                       POKE.                     51

   The root should be dug late in autumn or dur-
ing the winter.  It  should  be  cut in  transverse
slices and dried.   After being pulverized, it is to
be kept in close stopped phials.   The stock should
be annually renewed, as its activity is impaired by
age.
            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Phytolacca decandra, Linnjeus, sp.pl.—Aiton, Hort. ICew. ii.
122.—Botanical Magazine, t. 931.—Michaux, FL Amer. i. 278.
Pursh. i. 324.—Phytolacca  vulgaris, Dillenius, Hort. Elth.
t. 239.—P. Americana,—Boerhaave, Hort. Lug. ii. 70.—Solan-
um racemosum Americanum, Raius, Hist. 662.—Plukenet,
Phyt. t.  225. /. 3.—Solanum magnum Virginianum  rubrum,
Parkinson,  Theatrum, 347.—Blitum Americanum, Muntin-
gius, Phyt. cur. t. 212.
             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
  Murray, appar. med. iv. 335.—Kalm, travels in N. Amer. i.
197.—Graffenreid, Mem. Berne, iii. 185.—Scihepf. 71.—
Browne, Hist. Jamaica, 232.—Amozn. Acad. iv.—Miller, Diet-
under the name.—Sprogel. Diss. cir. ven. 24.—Beckman, com-
ment. Gotting, 1779, 74.—Allioni, Flor.Ped. ii. 132.—Frank-
lin, works, vol. i.—Cutler, Mem. Amer. Acad. i. 447.—Rush,
i. 259.—Thacher,  Disp. 300.—Shultz, Inaugural thesis.—
Hayward, N, Engl, Journal, vi.
                   PLATE III.
Fig. 1. Phytolacca decandra in flower and in fruit.

Fig. 2. Section of a berry. 
ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.
                 Bragon root.


                  PLATE IV.

   It appears, that both North and South Amer-
ica give rise to this species of  Arum, which is so
versatile in its constitution as to bear the winters
of Canada,  and the perpetual  summer of Brazil.
In its structure it is one of our most singular veg-
etables, and in colour one of  the  most variable.
It grows in swamps and damp shady woods, and is
universally known among us by the names of Bra-
gon root and Indian turnip.
    The class to which the family of  Arums be-
long, is rendered somewhat obscure by the varia-
tion of the species.  Most botanists have placed
them in the  class Moncecia, others in Polyandria.
 The  species under  consideration is undoubtedly
 Polygamous.  In natural arrangements, the Arums 
r;« n
// ff ///     ////////////•' • 
 
                 DRAGON ROOT*.              53
are found under the Piperita^ of Linnaeus and the
Aroidew of Jussieu.
    The genus Arum may be characterized as fol-
lows.   Spathe one leaved, convolute at base; spa-
dix naked above, bearing the organs of fructification
at base ;  berries one celled.
    The species triphyllum is polygamous; has its
leaves ternate and  entire;  its scape bearing an
ovate, acuminate,  infiexed spathe; its spadix club-
shaped, shorter than the spathe.
    The root is  round  and flattened, its upper
part tunicated like the onion,  its  lower  and
larger portion tuberous and fleshy, giving off nu-
merous long white radicles in a circle from its
upper edge.  It is covered on the under side with
a dark, loose, wrinkled skin.  Leaves usually one
or two on long sheathing footstalks, composed of
three oval, mostly entire, acuminate leafets, which
are smooth, paler on the under side,  and becom-
ing glaucous as the plant grows older, the two late-
ral ones somewhat rhomboidal.  Scape erect, round,
green  or variegated with purple, invested at base
by the petioles, and by their acute sheaths.  This
supports a large, ovate, acuminate spathe, convo-
luted into a tube at bottom,  but flattened and bent
over at the top, like a hood.   Its internal colour
is exceedingly various, even in plants growing to- 
54            ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.
gether.   In some  it is  wholly green,  in  others
dark purple or black.   In most it is variegated,
as in our figure, with pale greenish  stripes on a
dark ground.  The spadix is  much shorter  than
the spathe, club shaped, rounded at the  end,
green, purple, black, or variegated, suddenly con-
tracted into a narrow neck at base, and  surround-
ed below by the stamens or germs.  In the bar-
ren plants,  its base is covered with conical, fleshy
filaments, bearing  from two to four  circular an-
thers each.  In the fertile plants, it is invested
with roundish crowded  germs, each tipt  with a
stigma.   Plants which are perfectly monoecious,
and which are  the least common, have stamens
below the  germs.   There  are  also  frequently
found irregular, reniform substances,  much larger
than the anthers, of which they seem to be a dis-
ease.  The upper part of the spadix withers with
the spathe, while  the germs grow into a large
compact bunch of shining scarlet berries.
    Every part of the Arum, and especially the
root, is  violently acrid, and almost caustic.  Ap-
plied to the tongue or to any secreting surface, it
produces an effect  like  that of Cayenne pepper
but far  more powerful,  so much  so,  as to  leave a
permanent soreness of many  hours' continuance.
Of this any one may beeome satisfied by a simple 
                 DRAGON ROOT.              55
application of the root to his mouth.   Its action
does not readily extend through the cuticle, since
the bruised root may be  worn  upon the external
skin until  it  becomes  dry,  without occasioning
pain or rubefaction.
    The acrid property, which  resides in this and
other species of Arum,  appears to depend upon
a  distinct  vegetable principle in  Chemistry,  at
present  but  little understood.   It is  extremely
volatile,  and  disappears  almost entirely by heat,
drying, or simple exposure to the air.  I have en-
deavoured, with but partial success, to obtain it
in a separate state, or in  any perceptible combina-
tion.   The following were some of the methods
by which it was attempted.
    Portions of the fresh contused root were sepa-
rately digested in water, in proof spirit, in alcohol,
in ether, in olive oil and in  vinegar.   The  infu-
sions were tasted at different periods, but none of
them had acquired  the  least acrimony from the
plant.
    The expressed juice  of the  root upon standing
one minute had lost all its pungency.
    A quantity of the bruised root was  placed in a
retort and  covered with water.   Heat  was gradu-
ally  applied, until a fluid began  to collect in the
receiver.   This fluid had the peculiar odour of 
56            ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.
the root, but was wholly without acrimony.   The
same experiment was repeated  with alcohol, and
vinegar, and  afforded similar results.   In  every
case the liquid remaining in the retort  was also
without pungency.
   Some slices of the root were  digested in  proof
spirit in a close  stopped phial.   The portions of
root retained  their acrimony at the end of some
weeks, but had  imparted none to the spirit.  At
the end of two years, the root was  examined and
found destitute  of  acrimony,  as  were  also  the
whole contents of the phial.
   Suspecting that  the  acrid  principle of this
plant must escape in form of gas during the pro-
cesses  which have  been  mentioned,  the  fol-
lowing experiment was made.   A quantity  of the
bruised root and stalks were placed in a vessel of
water.   A glass receiver was filled with water and
inverted over them, and sufficient heat applied to
raise the water nearly to the boiling point.   From
the beginning of the process, bubbles of air con-
tinued to escape from the plant, and were collect-
ed  in  the  upper part of the  receiver.  In the
course of half an hour, a considerable quantity of
permanent gas was obtained.   A part of this gas
after cooling, was transferred to a phial, in  which
was a small quantity of atmospheric air.   On pre- 
                  DRAGON ROOT.                57
scnting a lighted paper to the mouth of this phi-
al, it exploded with a very distinct  report.  An-
other  portion  of the gas was agitated with  lime
water, which it  rendered  turbid.   This  circum-
stance was probably owing to the mixture of car-
bonic acid disengaged from the plant, or from the
water by boiling.
   From the  above experiments,  which  circum-
stances did  not  permit me to pursue, it  appears
that the acrimony of the Arum resides in a prin-
ciple having no affinity for water, alcohol, or oil,
being highly  volatile, and, in a state of gas,  in-
flammable.   The products of its  combustion, as
well  as  its  other affinities, remain to be investi-
gated.*
    The acrimony of the Arum when fresh  is too
powerful to render  its  internal exhibition safe.
The roots, when dried whole, retain a small por-
tion of their pungency, and in this state they have
been given  by some practitioners in the country
for flatulence, cramp in the  stomach, £50. also for

   * The acrimony of the Ranunculi, which approaches that of the
Arum, is lost by drying, yet is soluble in water, and passes over with
it in distillation. That of Polygonum hydropiper disappears in de-
coction and distillation.  The same takes place with several other
acrid plants which I have examined. Some inquiries into the acrid
principle of vegetables I am in hopes to render more mature at a fu-
ture period.
                    8 
58             ARUM TRIPHYLLUM.
asthmatic affections.  As topical stimulants, they
promise to be useful when any method shall have
been discovered of fixing and preserving their ac-
rimony.  The late Dr. Barton of Philadelphia ob-
serves, that " the recent root of this  plant boiled
in milk, so as to communicate to the milk a strong
impregnation of the peculiar acrimony of the plant,
has been advantageously  employed in  cases of
consumption of the lungs."   This statement how-
ever should be qualified by the recollection, that
the Arum  imparts  none of its acrimony to  milk
upon boiling.   An  impression  of this  kind can
only have been received from a partial mixture of
the substance of the root with the milk.
    The root contains a large proportion of very
pure white faecula, resembling the  finest arrow
root or starch.  To procure this, the  fresh root
should be  reduced  to  a  pulp, and  placed  on a
strainer.   Repeated portions of cold water should
then be  poured on it, which in passing through
the strainer carry with them the farinaceous part,
leaving the fibrous  portion behind.  The faecula
thus obtained, loses its acrimony on being  thor-
oughly dried, and forms a very white, delicate and
nutritive substance.  Dr. M'Call of Georgia  found
these roots to yield one fourth part of their weight
of pure amylaceous matter.—It is not uncommon 
                   DRAGON ROOT.                59

for a nutritious faecula to exist in pungent and poi-
sonous roots.   The  Laplanders prepare a whole-
some bread from the acrid roots  of Calla palus-
tris,  and  the juice  of  the  Cassava,  or  bread
root tree of the West Indies, is known to be high-
ly deleterious while recent. [Note F.]



            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

   LlNN-EUS, sp. pi.—Willdenow, iv. 480.—Aiton, Hort. Kew.
iii. 315.—Walter, Carol. 224.—Michaux, FL ii. 188.—Pursh,
ii. 399.  Dracunculus s. Serpentaria triphylla, &c.—Bauhin,
Pin. 195.—Arum s.  Arisarum, &c.—Morison, Hist. iii. 547,
S. 13, t. 5.—Plukenet, t. 77, f. 5. also t. 376,/. 3.
             MEDICAL REFERENCES.

   ScHfEPF, Mat. Med. 133.—Rush, ii. 301.—Barton, Coll. 29,
&c.—M'Call,in Philad.Med. and Phys. Journal,i\. 84.—Tuach-
er, Disp. 153.—Cutler, Mem. Amer. Acad. i. 487.
                  PLATE IV.

Fig. 1. Arum triphyllum.

Fig. 2. Spadix with anthers.

Fig. 3. Spadix with germs.

Fig. 4. Longitudinal section of the roof. 
C0PT1S TRIFOLIA.
                 Gold thread.


                   PLATE v.

    L he dark sphagnous  swamps, which  in  the
northern parts of our continent are covered with
a perpetual shade of firs, cedars and  pines, are
the favourite haunts of this  elegant little ever-
green.  The coldest situations seem to favour its
growth, and it flourishes alike in the morasses of
Canada and of Siberia.   On our highest mountain
tops it plants itself in little bogs and watery clefts
of rocks, and perfects its fructification in the short
summer allowed  it in  those situations.   I have
gathered it upon the summit of the Ascutney in
Vermont, and on the Alpine regions of the White
mountains.  It is here that in company with the
Diapensia and Azaleas of Lapland, the  blue Men-
ziesia, the fragrant Alpine Holcus, and other plants 
Pl.V.

Kv.U
Fio.m.
"///to    /}////ssr 
 
                  GOLD THREAD.               (51
of high northern latitudes, it forms the link of bo-
tanical  connexion  between the  two  continents.
When in situations like this, we seem  transported
to the frigid zone, and to be present at the  point
where the hemispheres approach each other, as if
to interchange their productions.*
    In the second volume of the Amcenitates Ac-
ademical is a description and imperfect figure of
this plant as brought from Kamschatka, by Hale-
nius.  He describes it by the name Helleborus
trifolius, with the observation,  " Minima  est haec
planta in suo genere,  attamen spectabilis."   Sub-
sequent botanists have ranked it with the Helle-
bores, until Mr. Salisbury very properly  separat-
ed it from a family of plants, with which it wholly
disagrees in  habit,  and  constituted a new genus
by the name of Coptis.  This  genus is character-
ized by  the following marks.   Calyx none; petals
flve  or  six, caducous; nectaries five  or six, cu-
cullate; capsules from five to eight, pedicelled, beak-
ed, many seeded.   The species trifolia has ternate
leaves, and a one flowered scape.
   * " Non sine admiratione vidi  non solum multas cum rarissimis
nostris plantis Lapponicis communes, sed etiam alias, partim ignotas
omnino, partim tninime tntas  et denique quasdam etiam cuin Cana-
dcnsibus easlem, argumento Canadam a Camscatca non longe dista*
re, iiti sequentes antea in sola America boieali visse, nunc etiam in
extrema ora Siberiee."          Jlmoenitutes Academical, ii. 310. 
62             COPTIS TRIFOLIA.
    In botanical arrangements, the Coptis will fol-
low the Hellebores, from which it was taken, re-
maining in the class and order Polyandria, Polygy-
nia, with  the Multisiliquae of  Linnaeus  and the
Ranunculaceae of Jussieu.
   The roots of this plant, from which the name
of goldthread is taken, are perennial and creeping.
On  removing the moss and decayed  leaves  from
the  surface of the ground, they  discover them-
selves of a bright yellow colour, running in every
direction.   The bases of the  new stems are in-
vested with a number of yellowish, ovate, acumi-
nate stipules.  Leaves ternate, on  long slender
petioles ;  leafets roundish,  acute at  base, lobed
and crenate, the  crenatures acuminate; smooth,
firm, veiny.   Scape slender,  round, bearing one
small, starry white flower, and a minute, ovate,
acute  bracte at some distance below.   Calyx none.
Petals five,  six or seven,  oblong, concave, white.
Nectaries  five or six, inversely conical, hollow, yel-
low at the mouth.   Stamens  numerous, white,
with capillary filaments  and  roundish anthers.
Germs from five to seven, stipitate, oblong, com-
pressed;  styles  recurved.  Capsules pedicelled
umbelled, oblong,  compressed,  beaked, with nu-
merous  black oval seeds attached to the inner side.
    The root of this plant is a pure intense bitter, 
                 GOLD THREAD.               63
scarcely modified by any other taste.   In distilla-
tion it communicates no decided sensible quality
to water.  The  constituent with which it  most
abounds is a bitter extractive matter, soluble both
in water and alcohol.  It seems destitute of resi-
nous or gummy portions, since the residuum from
an evaporated solution in alcohol is readily dissolv-
ed in water, and vice versa.   It is devoid of astrin-
gency when chewed in the  mouth, and it gives no
indication of the presence of tannin or gallic acid
when tested with animal gelatin, or with sulphate
of iron.  The  abundance of the bitter  principle
is evinced by the acetate of lead and nitrate of sil-
ver, both of which throw down a copious precipi-
tate.   The sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids
occasion no change, and the muriate of tin gives
only a slight precipitate, after some time standing.
    Of this article larger quantities are sold in the
druggists' shops in Boston, than of almost any in-
digenous production.   The  demand  for it arises
from its supposed efficacy as a local application in
aphthous, and other  ulcerations  of  the mouth.
Its  reputation however in these cases is wholly
unmerited, since it possesses no  astringent  or
stimulating quality, by which it can act on the ul-
cerated spots, and where benefit has attended its
use. it is doubtless to be ascribed to other articles 
64              COPTIS TRIFOL1A.
possessing the above properties, with which it is
usually combined.
    As a pure tonic bitter, capable of strengthen-
ing the viscera  and promoting digestion, it is en-
titled to rank with most  articles of that kind now
in use.   Its character  resembles  that  of Gen-
tian, Quassia, and Columbo, being a  simple bitter
without aroma or astringency.  The tincture, made
by digesting half  an ounce of the bruised  root in
eight ounces of diluted alcohol, forms  a preparation
of a fine  yellow colour, possessing the whole  bit-
terness of the plant.  I have given it in various in-
stances to  dyspeptics and convalescents, who have
generally expressed satisfaction  from its  effects,
at least,  as frequently as from other  medicines of
its  class.  A teaspoonful may be taken three times
a day.  In substance, it rests well on the stomach
in doses of ten or twenty  grains.  It is however
difficult  to reduce to powder on account of the te-
nacity of its fibres.


            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
    Coptis trifolia Salisbury, Lin. Trans, viii. 305.__Pursh, ii.
 390.—Helleborus trifolius, sp, pi—Willd. ii. 1338. Kalm
 Travels, iii. 379.—Lepech. iter i. 190.—Pallas, Iter. iii. 34.__,
 Oeder, F. Dan. t. 566.—Michaux, Fl. i. 325.—Amot>n. Acad.
 ii. 356, t.  4./. 18. 
GOLD THREAD.
65
               MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Helleborus trifolius, Bart. ColL Nigella.—Cutler, Amer.
Acad. i. 457.—Thacher, Disp. 283.


                       PLATE V.
   Fig. 1.  Coptis trifolia with the root, leaves, florvers ana\ last
           year's fruit.
   Fig. 2. Nectaries, stamens, and pistils magnified.
   Fig. 3.  Section of a capsule shewing the seeds.
*) 
          ARBUTUS UVA URSI.


                  Bear berry,


                   PLATE VI.

   Jb ew  shrubs are more extensively  diffused
throughout the northern  hemisphere, both in the
old and new  continents, than this trailing ever-
green.  We are told that it abounds in the north-
ern parts of Europe, in Sweden, Lapland, and Ice-
land, and extends southerly to the shores of the
Mediterranean.  In Siberia it is also found, and is
represented as  abundant on  the banks of the
Wolga.  In North America it grows from Hud-
son's  bay  as  far south,  at least, as the central
parts  of the United States.   It occupies the most
barren places, such  as  gravelly hills  and dry,
sandy woods, and covers  the ground with beds of
considerable extent. 
PI  VI
F{g.l.
Fur.  11.
           Fiff. Ill


/f/^/t/.j    '//,
K
   )
Kg.V.
Fi'o.ir.
/'a      tt/y/ 
 
                  BEAR BERRY.               67
    The family of plants bearing the name of Ar-
butus have for their distinctive marks a five-part-
ed calyx, an  ovate  corolla, pellucid at base ;  and
a  superior, five-celled berry.  They are closely
connected to the Vaccinia or whortleberries, from
which  they  differ  principally in. the situation of
the  berry, which in the  Arbutus  grows  above
the  calyx, and in the Vaccinium below it.—Both
these genera, at least the American species, prop-
erly belong to the class Becandria and order Mono-
gynia.  The Linnaean natural order is  Bicomes,
Jussieu has them among his Ericae.
   The species Uva ursi, Bear's grape or Bear-
berry is known from the rest by its procumbent
stem and entire leaves.—It trails upon the ground,
putting out roots  from the principal stems,  and
tending upward with the young shoots only.   The
cuticle is deciduous, and  peels off from  the old
stems.  Leaves scattered, obovate, acute  at base,
attached by short petioles,  coriaceous, evergreen,
glabrous, shining above, paler beneath, entire, the
margin rounded, but scarcely reflexed, and in the
young ones pubescent.  Flowers in a short cluster
on the ends of the branches.  Peduncles reflexed,
furnished at base with a short acute bracte under-
neath, and two minute ones at the sides.  Calvx
of five roundish segments, of a reddish colour and 
68             ARBUTUS UVA URSI.
persistent.  Corolla ovate or urceolate, white with
a reddish tinge, transparent at base, contracted
at the mouth, hairy inside, with five  short, reflex-
ed segments.   Stamens inserted at the base of the
corolla with hairy filaments, and anthers with two
horns and two pores in each.  Germ round, style
straight, longer than the stamens, stigma  simple.
Nectary a black indented ring, situated  below the
germ, and remaining till the  fruit is ripe.  Ber-
ries globular, depressed, of a deep red,  approach-
ing scarlet, containing an insipid, mealy  pulp, and
about five seeds, which in the  American plant co-
here strongly together, so as to appear like the nu-
cleus of a drupe.
   The leaves  and stems of the Uva ursi are used
in Sweden and  Russia for the purpose of tanning
leather.  According to Linnaeus, large  quantities
are annually collected for this use.
   When chewed in  the mouth, the leaves have
an astringent taste, combined with some degree of
bitterness.  The result of such chemical trials  as
I have made with them, shewrs that they  abound
in tannin, which is probably their chief active con-
stituent.  A solution  of gelatin occasions a copi-
ous precipitate ; sulphate of iron  an equally  co-
pious one of a  black colour.   Nitrate of mercury
and lime water gave large precipitates  from the 
                  BEAR BERRY.               69
decoction, the first of a light green, the last of a
brownish colour.  Of the existence of gallic acid,
at least as it exists in galls, I have  found no suffi-
cient proof.   The decoction does not redden vege-
table blues,  and the black precipitate with the sul-
phate of iron soon subsides, leaving the fluid nearly
colourless.  The quantity of resin,  mucous mat-
ter and extractive, provided they exist in this plant,
must be minute ;  since the decoction was not ren-
dered turbid by the addition of alcohol or ether,
nor the tincture by the addition of water, although
after standing twenty four hours, some slight floc-
culi appeared.   Muriate of tin produced no precip-
itation from the decoction,  though it gave one from
the tincture.  Acetite of lead and nitrate of sil-
ver gave large precipitates.  Water distilled from
this  plant, suffered  no change  with  sulphate of
iron, or muriate of tin.
   Professor Murray of Gottingen, finding  a great-
er amount  of soluble matter taken up  by water
than by alcohol, considers  the former  as the best
menstruum for this  article.  A similar inference
from the American plant was made by Dr. John
S. Mitchell in an inaugural dissertation, published
at Philadelphia in 1803.   For medical uses, 3Iui>
ray prefers the decoction to the infusion. 
70             ARBUTUS UVA URSI.
   The Uva ursi was probably  known to the an-
cients, as it grows in all the southern parts of FiU-
rope.  Clusius thinks it was the agxrov trrct<pv\ti of
Galen, celebrated by him as a remedy in hemop-
tysis, and  described as  follows.  " Uva  ursi  in
Ponto  nascitur, planta  humilis  et fruticosa,  folio
Memaecyli,  fructum ferens rubrum,  rotundum,
s:ustu austerum."  But  it is well known that the
brief and imperfect descriptions  of the  ancients
were productive of  little else than uncertainty in
Botany.
   In modern times the  Uva ursi was brought
into  notice  about the  middle of the  eighteenth
century by De Haen, as  an  efficient remedy in
nephritic  and  even in calculous  cases.  It  had
been previously in  use for these  complaints in
Spain, at Naples and Montpellier, and as a gener-
al astringent, at a still earlier period.   Its reputa-
tion  was still further  augmented  by subsequent
dissertations,  published  upon its  properties, and
different sets of experiments  were instituted to
ascertain if it were  not actually capable of dissolv-
ing the stone of the  bladder.  The results most in
favour of its solvent power were  those of Girardi
who diminished the weight and consistency of uri-
nary calculi, by digesting them in a preparation
of this plant.  It appears however that the prep- 
                   BEAR BERRY.                 71
aration, which he employed,  was  an acid  liquor,
obtained by a destructive distillation of the leaves,
and  probably not superior to other weak acids in
its solvent powers.   On the other hand, Professor
Murray found what  might reasonably be expect-
ed, that these calculi were not materially affected
by long digestion in a decoction  of this  plant at
various temperatures.
    The attention of many  medical writers  has
been called to the  properties of this  medicine,
and their reports as to its success are  extremely
various.   Among  its  greatest friends, are  De
Haen,  Professor Murray, and Dr. Ferriar ; while
of those whose  opinion is more unfavourable, are
Sauvages, Haller, Donald, Munro  and Fothergill.
Dr. Cullen adopts the opinion of De Heucher, that
the  symptoms of calculus generally are  suscepti-
ble of relief from astringents, and believes  that on
this  principle the Uva ursi is capable of mitigat-
ing complaints arising from that source.*
    In this country the Uva ursi  has acquired the
good opinion  of practitioners  of medicine in re-
   * In the preface to the third volume of Medical Observations and
Inquiries, published at London, it is stated in very general terms, that
the U va ursi had been prescribed unsuccessfully by many of the mem-
bers of the Society of Physicians in London.  Dr. Woodville, in his
Medical Botany, has unfortunately misquoted this passage, by  read-
in 2; " successfully" instead of" unsuccessfully." 
 73            ARBUTUS UVA URSI.
peated instances.    Professor  Wistar  of  Phila-
delphia,  as  cited by Dr. Mitchell, has in several
cases found symptoms like those of urinary calcu-
lus completely removed by this  medicine.  But
these could not probably have  been cases  of real
calculus.  The late  Professor  Barton found the
plant of much service in his own case of nephrit-
ic paroxysms, alternating with gout in the feet.
    From the various testimonies which have been
given respecting the properties of this article, we
are not  warranted in believing it to possess any
real lithontriptic power.  At the same time it un-
doubtedly proves a palliative for calculous  symp-
toms in many cases.
    I have repeatedly watched its effects in parox-
ysms  of  nephritis, brought on by gravelly concre-
tions, and am on the whole  inclined to believe in
its  tendency to allay sensibility in these cases,
and to hasten  the  relief of the symptoms.  It
ought generally to  be preceded  by  evacuations,
and may be advantageously accompanied with
opium.—In cases of dysury arising from  a vari-
ety of causes, I have given the decoction  of this
plant  with very satisfactory success  in repeated
instances.
    The other diseases in which this plant has been
recommended are, catarrhus vesicae, leucorrhsea 
                 BEAR BERRY.              73
and gonorrhaea.  All these complaints it has doubt-
less  cured, but is at the same time  inferior to
other medicines in use for the same purposes.
   Some years ago  the Uva ursi was recommend-
ed as a remedy in pulmonary consumption by Dr.
Bourne of Oxford in England, and by other wri-
ters  in the  periodical  works.   It was stated to
have a very  sensible effect in diminishing hectic
fever, and abating the frequency of the pulse de-
pendent on it.  We do not find however that sub-
sequent experience has justified the expectations
formed of it in this disease.
   In  Dr. Mitchell's  experiments on the  pulse
with this medicine, it appears that the pulsations
were sometimes, not always, slightly increased af-
ter taking it, but that in  every case they soon
sunk below the natural standard, and remained so
for some time.
   Of the powder of the leaves of Uva ursi, from
one to two scruples may be given to most patients.
Dr.  Ferriar's dose in nephritis was from five
to ten  grains, but a  larger quantity is more  effec-
tual, and is readily  borne by the stomach.   The
decoction may be  made  from half an  ounce
of the  leaves boiled for ten minutes  in a pint of
water.  From a wine glass  to  a gill  of this may
be taken  every hour.
                10 
74
ARBUTUS IVA URSI.
             BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

   Arbutus Uva ursi, Linnjeus, Fl. Lapponica, 162, t, vi./. 3.—
Oeder, Fl. Dan. t. 33.—Woodville, i. t. 70.—Smith, Fl. Brit.
443.—Engl. Bot. t. 714.—Michaux, Fl. i. 249.—Pursh, i. 282.
—Uva ursi, J. Bauhin, i. 523.—Clusius, Hispan. 79.—Lobel,
Icon.'u 366.—Parkinson, theatr. 1457.—Vitis Idsea, Raivs, Hist.
1489.
              MEDICAL REFERENCES.

   Murray, Apparatus Med. ii. 64.—Girardi, de Uva ursina,
&c—De Haen, Ratio medendi, ii. 160, &c—Sauvages, Nosol.
iii. 2, 200.—D. Munro, Mat. Med. iii. 288.—Fothergill, Med.
Obs.  144.—Alexander, Exp. essays, 151.—Ferriar i. 109.—
Heberden 79, 360.—Davie, Med, and Phys. Journal, xv. 347.—
Bourne, in ditto, xiv.,463.—Sch(EPF, 67.—Mitchell, Inaugu-
ral Thesis.
                   PLATE VI.

Fig. 1. Arbutus Uva ursi, the American variety.

Fig. 2. Tlw magnified corolla opened, sliewing the insertion of
       the stamens.

Fig. 3. Calyx, nectary, germ, and style magnified.

Fig. 4. Calyx and nectary.

Fig. 5. Berry. 
J. 
PI.  III
/,///,//</////."r?         ( ft /////, //>/,) 
      SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.


                  Blood root.


                  PLATE VII.
   Among the earliest visiters of spring the bota-
nist will find in almost any  part  of the United
States the Sanguinaria Canadensis.   Its fine white
flowers  proceeding from the bosom of a young,
convoluted leaf, become  visible  in the woods, in
Carolina, in the  month of March, and in New En-
gland, toward the end of April.   Its most com-
mon name is Blood root.  It has also the appella
tion of Puccoon,  Turmeric, Bed root, §c.  It is the
only species  we at present possess of the genus
Sanguinaria, distinguished by a  two leaved calyx
eight petals, and an oblong capsule, with one cell
and many seeds,—Class Polyandria, order Mono-
gynia.   Natural  order Bhoeadecc, L. Papaveraceas,
Juss. 
76         SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.
   The flower and leaf proceed from the end  of
a horizontal, fleshy, abrupt root, fed by numerous
radicles.  This root  makes offsets from its sides,
which  separate as the old root decays, acquiring
by this separation the abrupt or  premorsc form.
   Externally the colour of the root is a brownish
red.  Internally it is pale, and when divided emits
a bright orange  coloured juice  from numerous
points  of its surface.  The bud or hybernaculum,
which  terminates the root, is composed of succes-
sive scales or sheaths, the last of which acquires a
considerable  size, as the  plant springs up.   By
dissecting this hybernaculum in the summer or
autumn, we  may discover the embryo  leaf and
flower  of the  succeeding spring, and with a com-
mon magnifier, even the stamens may be counted.
   The Sanguinaria is smooth throughout.   The
leaves grow on long  channelled petioles.  When
spread out, they  are reniform or  heart shaped,
with large roundish lobes separated by obtuse  si-
nuses.   The under  side  is strongly reticulated
with veins; it is paler than the upper, and at length
becomes glaucous.   The  scape is round, rises in
front of the petiole,  and is infolded by the young
leaf.  The calyx consists of two concave, ovate,
obtuse leaves, which are perfect in the bud, but
fall off when  the corolla  expands.   Petals eight, 
                 BLOOD ROOT.              77
spreading,  concave,  obtuse,  the  alternate or ex-
ternal  ones longer,  so that  the flower has  a
square  appearance.   This is its natural charac-
ter, although cultivation sometimes  increases the
number of petals. Stamens  numerous, with ob-
long yellow anthers.  Germ  oblong, compressed,
style  none, stigma thick, somewhat two lobed.
Capsule oblong,  acute  at both extremities,  two
valved.   Seeds numerous, roundish, compressed,
dark shining red, half surrounded with a peculiar
white vermiform  appendage, which projects at the
lower end.
    After the flower has fallen, the leaves continue
to grow, and by midsummer have acquired so large
a size as to appear like a different plant.
    The root of this  vegetable is the only part
which I have submitted to chemical examination.
The experiments made on this  substance, gave
evidence of the following  constituent  principles.
    1. A peculiar resin.   Alcohol comes off from
the root strongly impregnated with its colour and
taste.   This solution is rendered turbid by the
addition of water.  When  evaporated to dryness,
it leaves a residuum partially, but not wholly soluble
in water.  When successive quantities of water
have been  agitated with the  powdered root until
the infusion comes off colourless, alcohol acquires 
78          SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.
a colour from  the remainder.   iEther receives
from the root a yellowish  colour, and  when eva-
porated, leaves  the  resin  nearly pure.  In this
state it is moderately adhesive, of a deep orange
colour, bitter and acrid, diffusible, but not soluble
in water.   The  resin may also be precipitated in
small quantities from alcohol by water.
   2. A bitter principle.   Both water and alcohol
acquire a strong bitter taste when digested on the
root.  From both  these solutions a copious pre-
cipitate is  thrown down  by the nitrate  of silver
and the acetite of  lead.  Muriate of tin gradually
renders the solution turbid, but without a precipi-
tate.  Oxymuriatic acid renders the alcoholic so-
lution turbid, but produces no change  in  the  wa-
tery solution for some time.  At length a precip-
itate forms and slowly subsides ;  but produces no
change in the watery solution.  No precipitate was
formed  from the cold aqueous infusion in an hour
by the sulphuric or nitric acids, by lime water, ni-
trate of mercury, muriate  of barytes, oxalate of
ammonia, sulphate of iron, gelatine or hydro-sul-
phuret  of  potash.   After  standing twenty four
hours, a very slight precipitate was  discovered
from the lime water and nitrate  of mercury only.
    3. An acrid principle.  The acrimony resides
in part in the resin, but is also communicated to 
                  BLOOD ROOT.               79
water.  It is diminished by heat, yet it does not
come over with water in distillation.
   4. Faecula.  The infusion  of the root in cold
water is limpid.  The hot infusion is viscid and
glutinous and stiffens linen.   From this solution
the faecula is precipitated in a white powder by  al-
cohol.  Nitric acid dissolves this precipitate, which
may be again thrown down by  alcohol.
    5. A fibrous or woody portion.
    The beautiful colour  of the root seems to  re-
side more in the resin than in any other princi-
ple, since the alcoholic solution has always more
than  twice as much colour as the aqueous.   Pa-
pers dipt in these solutions receive a bright salmon
colour from the tincture, but a very faint one from
the aqueous infusion.  This circumstance furnish-
es an impediment to the use of this article in dyeing.
    The medical properties of the Sanguinaria are
those of an acrid narcotic.  When taken in a large
dose it irritates the fauces, leaving an impression
in the throat for considerable time after it is swal-
lowed.  It occasions heartburn, nausea, faintness,
and  frequently vertigo  and  diminished  vision.
At length it vomits, but in this operation it is less
certain than other emetics in common use.  The
above effects are  produced by a dose of from eight
to twenty grains of the fresh powdered root. 
80         SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.
   When given in smaller doses, such as produce
nausea  without vomiting,  and repeated  at fre-
quent intervals, it lessens the  frequency  of the
pulse in a manner somewhat analogous to the op-
eration of Digitalis.  This however is a seconda-
ry effect, since in its primary  operation it  seems
to accelerate  the  circulation.  Exhibited  in this
manner,  it has been  found  useful in  several
diseases.
   In  still smaller doses, or such as do not excite
nausea, it has acquired some reputation as  a tonic
stimulant.
   Professor Smith of Hanover, New Hampshire,
in a paper on this plant, published in the London
Medical Transactions, vol. i. states that he found
the powder to operate violently as  an emetic, pro-
ducing  great prostration of strength, during  its
operation, which continued for some time.  He had
not known it  to act as a cathartic.   Snuffed up the
nostrils, it proved  sternutatory, and  left a sensa-
tion  of heat  for some time.  Applied to fungous
flesh it proved escharotic, and several polypi of the
soft kind were cured by it in his hands.  He found
it of great use in the incipient stages of pulmona-
ry consumption,  given in as large doses  as the
stomach would bear, and repeated.  In  cases of
great irritation it was combined with opium. Some 
                 BLOOD ROOT.               81
other complaints were benefitted by it, such as
acute rheumatism and jaundice.
    Professor Ives of New Haven* considers the
Blood root as a remedy of importance in many dis-
eases, particularly of the lungs and liver.  He ob-
serves, that  in typhoid  pneumonia, " in  plethoric
constitutions,  when  respiration is very difficult,
the cheeks and hands become livid, the pulse full
soft, vibrating and easily compressed,—the Blood
root has done more to obviate the symptoms and
remove the  disease," than any remedy which he
has used.   In such cases, he observes, " the dose
must be large in proportion to the violence of the
disease, and often repeated, until it excites vomit-
ing, or relieves the symptoms."  He infuses from
a scruple to half a drachm of the powdered  root
in half a gill of hot water, and gives one or two tea-
spoonfuls every half hour, in urgent  cases, until
the effect is produced.  This treatment has often
removed the symptoms in a few hours.
    Dr.  Ives thinks highly of its use in influenza,
in phthisis,  and particularly in hooping  cough.
He also states, that given in large doses, sufficient
to produce  full vomiting, it often removes the
Croup, if administered in the first stages.  It has
been given,  he remarks, "for many years in the
  * Letter dated November 5,1816.
                  11 
82         SAUGUINARIA CANADENSIS.
country, some  physicians  relying wholly on this
remedy for the cure of croup."
    Dr. Macbride, of Charleston, S. C.  who  has
contributed many judicious remarks on the medi-
cinal properties of plants, to  Mr. Elliott's excel-
lent Botany of the Southern States ;  informs me,*
that he has  found the Blood  root useful in Hy-
drothorax, given in doses of sixty drops, ter de die,
and increased  until  nausea followed  each dose.
In a week or two the  good effect was evident, the
pulse  being rendered slow and  regular, and the
respiration much improved.   In the same letter
he observes, " In torpor of the liver, attended with
colic and yellowness of the skin, a disease com-
mon in this climate, I use  the Puccoon  with  evi-
dent  advantage.   We use  it also in jaundice, but
in this disease I do not trust exclusively to it.   I
prefer the pill or powder (dose from two to five
grains) and  vinous infusion, to the spirituous tinc-
ture."
    The tincture of Sanguinaria may be made by
digesting an ounce of the  powdered root in eight
ounces of diluted alcohol.   This preparation pos-
sesses all the bitterness, but less of the nauseat-
ing quality, than the  infusion.  In the dose of a
small teaspoonful, it is used by many practitioners
   * Letter dated December, 1816. 
                    BLOOD ROOT.                 83

as a stimulating tonic, capable of increasing the
appetite and promoting digestion.



            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

   Sanguinaria Canadensis, Lin. sp. pi—Curtis, Botan. Mag.
t. 162.—Aiton, Hort.  Kew.  ii. 222.—Walter,  Carol.  153.—
Michaux, Flora 1, 309.—Pursh, ii. 366.—Sanguinaria  minor,
Dillenius, Elth. f. 326 and  S. major, /. 325 in t. 252.—Cheli-
donium maximum acaulon Canadense Raius, Hist. 1887.—Ran-
unculus Virg. albus. Parkinson, Th. 326.—Chelidonium ma-
jus Canad. acaulon Cornutus, Canad. 212.
             MEDICAL REFERENCES.

   Schcepf, 85.—Smith, Trans. Lond. Med. Society, i. 179.—
Bart. CoU. 28.—Cutler, Mem. Amer. Acad. i. 455.—Thacher,
Disp. 331. 
GERANIUM MACULATUM.
              Common Cranesbill.


                  PLATE VIII.

   In common language the term Geranium in-
cludes all that extensive tribe of plants comprised
by the old genus of that name, and principally
characterised by their beaked fruit and five seeds
which are scattered by means of awns.  L'Heri-
tier has divided this family into three distinct  gen-
era, under different  orders in the  artificial class
Monadelphia.  These are Erodium, having five sta-
mens, five nectariferous scales and glands, and the
awns of the fruit twisted and bearded.   Pelargoni-
um, which includes most of the Cape species  so
commonly cultivated among us, having about seven
stamens, an irregular corolla, and a nectareous  tube
running down the peduncle.  Lastly,  Geranium
having  ten stamens, a regular corolla, five  nec^ 
pi. nu.
n.,.n 
* 
              COMMON CRANESBILL.           85
 tariferous glands at the base  of the  longer fila-
 ments, the awns of the fruit neither bearded nor
 twisted.  To this division belongs the  plant under
 consideration, which  has the following specific
 character.  Erect, hairy backward; stem forked;
 leaves opposite, three or five parted, cut; peduncles
 mostly two flowered ; petals, obovate, entire.
    Jussieu has  formed a natural  order by  the
 name of Gerania, which nearly corresponds to the
 Gruinales of Linnaeus.
    Although we have few species of Geranium
 in the United States, yet the present species, by its
 extensive diffusion, is a sufficient representative
 of the race.   It is very  common in low  grounds,
 about Boston and Philadelphia, in the Carolinas,
 and in the western country upon the banks of the
 Ohio  and Illinois.
    The root of Geranium maculatum is perennial,
 horizontal,  thick, rough and knobby.   In most
 plants it sends up a stem and several root  leaves.
 The leaves  are spreading,  hairy,  divided in a pal-
 mate  manner into three, five, or seven lobes, which
 are variously cut and toothed at their  extremi-
 ties ;  those  of the root are on long petioles, those
 at the middle of  the stem opposite and  petioled,
those  at the top opposite and nearly sessile.   The
stem is erect, round, hispid with reversed  hairs, 
86           GERANIUM MACULATUM.
dichotomous, with a flower stalk in the fork.  Sti-
pules and bractes linear, dilated at base.   Pedun-
cles round, hairy, swelling at base, generally two
flowered.   Calyx of five oblong, ribbed, mucron-
ated leaves, with the parts, which are outermost
in the bud, hairy.   Petals five, obovate, not emargi-
nate, of a light purple colour, which is  deeper
when the plant grows in the shade, marked with
green at the base.  Stamens ten, erect or curving
outward, the alternate  ones a little longer, with
nectariferous glands at the base ;  filaments dilat-
ed  and united  together at base ;  anthers  oblong,
deciduous,  so that the number frequently appears
less than  ten.   Germ  ovate;  style  straight, as
long as the stamens ;  stigmas five, at first erect,
afterwards  recurved.   Capsule five seeded,  sur-
mounted by a long straight beak, from the sides of
which when ripe are separated five thin, flat awns,
which curl up, having cast off the seed contained
in the cell at the base of each.
    The root of the Geranium, which is the part to
be used in medicine, is internally of a green  col-
our, and when dry is exceedingly  brittle and easi-
ly reduced  to powder.  It is one of the most pow-
erful astringents we possess, and from its decided
properties,  as well as the  ease of procuring it, it
may well supersede in medicine many foreign ar- 
             COMMON CRANESBILL.           87
tides of its class which are consumed among us.
The experiments, which  I  have made upon  this
root, have been principally  directed to the exami-
nation of its astringent qualities.
    A drachm of the powdered root was steeped in
two ounces of cold water and the infusion filtrat-
ed.  Successive  portions  of  water were  add-
ed until the liquid came off colourless  and taste-
less.  The collected infusion had a pale greenish
colour, and a styptic, austere taste.  It did not
redden vegetable blues.
    To half this infusion was added a drachm of
gelatin in solution. The liquor instantly became
of a milky whiteness,  and a copious white precipi-
tate was thrown down.   This precipitate was dri-
ed  and assumed  a semi-transparent, horny  ap-
pearance.   Its weight was eleven grains.
    A drachm of kino treated in  the same  man-
ner was rendered turbid, but  gave a very scanty
precipitate with the gelatin.
    To portions of the same infusions was added  a
solution of the  muriate of tin.  In both of them  a
greenish precipitate  was formed, but that of the
Geranium was much the most immediate and
abundant.
    The  sulphate of iron struck a dark purple col-
our with the  infusion of Geranium.  The  com- 
 88          GERANIUM MACULATUM.
 pound remained principally suspended at the end
 of twenty four hours,  and when used in writing
 had the  appearance of common ink, but in a few
 days  changed to a  dull brown colour.   A por-
 tion of the fresh infusion was distilled, but the  li-
 quid which came over was not altered in colour
 by the sulphate of iron.
    The above experiments indicate the presence
 of tannin and gallic acid, the former in large quan-
 tities, in the root of the Geranium.   The propor-
 tion of tannin seems considerably to exceed that
 in the kino of the shops.  The gallic acid  is in-
 dicated by the dark precipitate remaining in so-
 lution.  This is Berthollet's criterion.   It differs
 however from the acid of oak galls in not reddening
 vegetable blues, and not passing over in distillation.
    Alcohol and proof spirit readily dissolve the
 active constituents of the  Geranium.   The tinc-
ture has a great sensible  astringency, and is a
 convenient mode of keeping the  article for use.
    The Geranium has been repeatedly employed
in medicine by various practitioners in this coun-
try.   I have found it useful in  a number of cases,
where astringents were capable of rendering ser-
 vice.  It is particularly suited  to the treatment  of
 such discharges  as  continue from  debilitv after
 the removal of their exciting  causes.  The tine- 
               COMMON CRANESBILL.           89
ture forms an excellent local  application  in sore
throats and ulcerations of the mouth.
   Its internal use has been recommended in dys-
entery and cholera infantum, but astringents are
not always admissible in these complaints, at least
in their early stages, during the existence of much
active inflammation, or during the presence of any
substance requiring to be removed.
    The Geranium may be used in powder in ex-
tract,  or in  tincture.  Its  doses  are similar  to
those  of kino and catechu, a drachm  or two  of
the tincture, twenty  or  thirty grains of the pow-
der, and a quantity somewhat less of the extract.

           BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
  Geranium maculatum, Sp.pl Willdenow, iii. 705.—Grono-
yius, Virg. 101.—Walter,  Carol. 175.—Michaux, ii. 33.—
Pursh, ii. 448.—G. caule erecto, herbaceo, foliis oppositis, quin-
que partitis, incisis &c. Cavanilles, diss. t. 86,/. 2.—G. batra-
chioides, Americanum, maculatum, floribus obsolete coeruleis.
BiUu.Elth. 158. t. 131,/. 159.

            MEDICAL REFERENCES.
  ScHrEFF, 107.—Bart. Coll. 7.—Cutler, Mem. Amer. Acad.
], 469.—Thacher, Disp. 224.

                   PLATE VIII.
    Fig. 1. Geranium maculatum.
    Fig. 2. The fruit.
    Fig. 3. The root.
                 12 
       TRIOSTEUM  PERFOLIATUM.


                    Fever root.


                     PLATE IX.
    A his  is  rather a solitary plant, and  though
met with in most parts of the  United States,  it
rarely, I believe, occurs in large quantities.  About
Boston it is found in several places at the borders
of woods in rich, shady situations.  Its common
names are Fever root and Wild ipecac*  Pursh
observes, that it is rare, and generally occurs  in
limestone  soils.  With us it flowers in June and
ripens its fruit in September.
    The genus Triosteum is  found  in the  class
   * The quaint  appellation of Dr. Tinker's weed, which has been
bestowed on  this plant, is thus gravely commented on  by Poiret.
" Ses racines et celles de  l'espece precedente passent pour emeti-
ques ; le docteur Tinkar est le premier qui les a mises en usage, et
qui a fait donner  a" cette plante par plusieurs habitans de l'Amerique
scptentrionale le nom d' herbe sauvage du docteur Tinkar." 
PI. IS
Fur. Ill
Fio r
Fi.>. II.
Fi„.  IV
Fir II.       Fl'.'.  VII
/,t<:////////   //< i/t/f/t/ft 
 
                  FEVER ROOT.               91
 Pentandria and order Monogynia.   Its  natural
 affinities place  it among the Aggregated  of Lin-
 naeus and the Caprifolia of Jussieu.  It is charac-
 terized by a monopetalous, five-lobed,  unequal co-
 rolla ;  a calyx as long as the corolla ; and a ber-
 ry with three cells and three seeds.  The  species
 perfoliatum  differs from the rest in having its
 leaves connate, and its flowers sessile and whorled.
   The root of this plant is perennial  and subdi-
 vided  into  numerous horizontal branches.  The
 stem is erect, hairy, fistulous, round, from one to
 four feet high. The leaves are  opposite, the
 pairs crossing each other, connate,  ovate,  acumi-
 nate, entire, rather flat, abruptly contracted at
 base into a sort of neck,  resembling a  winged
 petiole.   This portion varies in width, as Michaux
 has  expressed it, "foliis  latius, angustiusve  con
 natis."   In general it is narrow when the plant is
 in flower, as represented in the figure;  and wider
 when it is in fruit.  The flowers are axillary, sessile,
 five or  six in a  whorl, the upper ones generally
 in a  single pair.  Each axil is furnished with two
 or three linear  bractes.  The calyx  consists  of
five  segments which are spreading, oblong-linear
coloured,  unequal,  persistent.   Corolla tubular,
curving, of a dull brownish purple,  covered  with
minute  hairs, its base gibbous, its border open and 
92          TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM.
divided into five rounded, unequal lobes.   Stamens
inserted in  the tube  of the corolla, hairy, with
oblong anthers.  Germ inferior, roundish ; style
longer than the corolla;  stigma  peltate.  The
fruit is an  oval berry of a deep orange yellow,*
hairy,  somewhat three  sided, crowned  with the
calyx,  containing three cells and three hard, bony,
furrowed seeds, from which the name of the genus
is taken.
    This plant was made the subject of  an inter-
esting communication to the Linnaean  society  of
New England, by Dr. John Randall.   The exper-
iments made by him on its medical uses and phar-
maceutical   preparations   were  numerous,  and
serve to  throw much light on its properties.  In
trying the solvent powers of water and alcohol, he
found that water afforded a much greater quanti-
ty of extract than alcohol, and that the spirituous
extract was  perfectly soluble in water, whence he
infers  that no resin in a pure state  exists in the
plant.   He  discovered no volatile oil by distilla-
tion, nor any other principle of activity in water
distilled from the  plant.   He concludes  also, that
  * Pursh observes that the flowers and berries are purple. In all
the specimens I have examined, which have not been few in number,
the fruit was of a bright  orange colour. If Pursh has seen a plant
with purple berries, it is probably a different species from the true
plant of Linnajus and Dillenius, which had "fructus lutescentes." 
                 FEVER ROOT.               98
no free acid exists in this vegetable.  Of the dif-
ferent parts submitted to examination, the leaves
yielded the greatest quantity of soluble matter,
but the root afforded that of the  greatest activity.
By decoction and evaporation with water an ounce
of the dried  stalks  afforded one drachm of ex-
tract ; an ounce of the  dry roots, two  drachms
and two scruples, and the same quantity of leaves
half an ounce.  From a similar treatment of equal
portions with  alcohol, rather more than half the
above quantities of extract were obtained.
    The  sensible qualities of the root were found
essentially different from those of the herb.  Both
of them possess a large share of bitterness, but the
root has also a nauseous  taste  and smell, some-
what  approaching to those of ipecacuanha.   The
medical properties of the Triosteum  are those of
an emetic and cathartic.  In the above disserta-
tion,  about thirty cases are detailed, in which dif-
ferent preparations  and quantities of the article
were given to various persons with a view to their
medicinal effects.   The general inference to be
made from them is,  that the bark of the root acts
with tolerable certainty as an evacuant  upon the
alimentary canal, both  by emesis and  catharsis.
When given alone, either in powder or decoction,
the instances  of its  failure wrere not manv, and 
94?        TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM.
when combined with calomel, its operation was at-
tended with a certainty, hardly inferior to that of
jalap.  The aqueous and spirituous extract of the
root were likewise efficacious, and nearly in an
equal degree.  Preparations  made from different
parts of the herb possessed much less activity, the
decoction of the leaves operating only as a diapho-
retic, and that of the stalk producing no effect.
    The late Professor Barton of Philadelphia, in
his Collections toward a Materia Medica of the U-
nited States, speaks of this  plant  as a  mild and
good cathartic, sometimes operating as a diuretic
and in large doses as an emetic.
    My own  experience with this plant has not
been extensive, yet sufficient to satisfy me of its
medicinal power.   Where I have administered it,
it has generally proved cathartic,  a  larger  dose
however being requisite for this purpose, than of
jalap or aloes.   It has sometimes failed  to  pro-
duce any effect, and I am inclined to believe that
its efficacy is much impaired by age.  Those who
may incline  to employ it, will do  well  to renew
tlieir stock  annually, and to keep the powder in
close stopped phials.
    A dose of the bark of the root in  powder is
twenty or twenty five  grains, and of the  extract,
a somewhat smaller quantity. 
FEVER ROOT.
95
             BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Triosteum perfoliatum, Lin. sp. pi.  Aiton, Hort. Kew, i. 234.
—Pursh. i. 162.—Triosteum majus, Michaux, Fl. i. 107.—T.
floribus  verticillatis, sessilibus,  Gronov.  31.—Triosteosper-
mum latiore folio, flore rutilo, Dlllenius, Elth. t, 293. /. 378.


              MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Sch(EPF, 23.—Bart. Coll, 29.


                       PLATE IX.
Fig. 1. Triosteum perfoliatum.
Fig. 2. A flower separated.
Fig. 3. The corolla opened, shewing the stamens and style.
Fig. 4. The calyx.
Fig. 5. The fruit, crowned with the calyx.
Fig. 6. The same dissected to shew the three seeds.
Fig. 7. A seed. 
RHUS VERN1X.
          Poison Sumach or Bogwood.


                  PLATE X,

    J. he fine, smooth foliage of the Rhus vernix
render it one of the most elegant of our native
shrubs, while its well  known poisonous  qualities
make it an object of aversion, and deter most per-
sons from a near inspection  of its structure and
characteristics.   From Canada to Carolina it is a
common tenant of swamps and meadows, usually
attaining the height of ten or fifteen  feet, but
sometimes rising into a tree of twice that altitude.
The names of Poison tree, Poison wood, Poison
ash, 6jc. are  applied to it in different parts of the
United States.  In Massachusetts it is universal-
ly known by the name of Bogwood,  This appel-
lation,  being applied throughout  the country to
Cornus florida,  serves  to shew the fallacy of de- 
%   f
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Fit/. 'J.
/>„..*.
-\<rr<~
/»/./.
"vy. /.
■v / ///.r
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J 
 
                POISON SUMACH.              97
pending on vulgar or provincial names for the
distinction of plants.  A mistake of very injuri-
ous consequence might easily arise from the confu-
sion of the English names of two trees so dissimi-
lar in their qualities.
    The class Pentandria and order Trigynia; the
Linnaean order Bumosas and the Jussieuean Tere-
bintaceas include the genus to which this shrub
belongs.  The generic character consists in an
inferior, flve-parted cahjx, a corolla of flve petals,
and a berry with one  seed.  The Rhus vernix has
its leaves annual, pinnate, glabrous ; its leafets ob-
long, entire, acuminate; its panicle  lax, and its
flowers dioecious.
    The trunk of the poison sumach is from one
to five  inches in diameter, branching at top, and
covered with a pale greyish bark.  The wood is
light and brittle, and contains much  pith.   The
ends of the young shoots  and the petioles are usu-
ally of a fine red colour, which contributes  much
to the  beauty of the shrub.  The leaves are pin-
nate, the leafets oblong or oval,- entire, or  some-
times  slightly sinuate, acuminate, smooth, paler
underneath, nearly sessile, except the terminal
one.  The flowers, which appear in June, are very
small,  green, in loose axillary panicles.  Where
they appear not axillary, it is because the leat un-
                   13 
 98              RHUS VERNIX.
 der them has been detached.  The barren and
 fertile flowers  grow  on  different  trees.   The
 panicles  of barren flowers  are  the largest and
 most branched.   They are furnished with short,
 oblong bractes, and downy  pedicels.   The ca-
 lyx has five ovate segments, and the  corolla five
 oblong, sigmoid petals.   The stamens are longer
 than  the  petals,  and project  through their in-
 terstices.   The  rudiment of a three-cleft  style
 is found  in  the  centre.—In the fertile  flowers,
 the  panicles  of which are  much  smaller, the
calyx and petals  resemble the  last, while the
centre is  occupied by an oval germ, ending  in
three circular stigmas.   The fruit is  a bunch
of dry berries  or rather drupes of  a  greenish
white, sometimes marked with slight purple veins,
and  becoming  wrinkled  when  old.  They are
roundish, a little broadest at the upper end, and
compressed;  containing one white,  hard, furrow-
ed seed.
   A  tree, supposed to be the same with the
 Rhus vernix,  grows in Japan, and furnishes the
 celebrated black varnish of that country.
   A controversy  respecting the identity of the
 Japanese and American species, was carried on in
 the forty ninth and fiftieth volumes of the London
 Philosophical transactions, by Mr. Philip Miller 
                 POISON SUMACH.              99
 and Mr. John Ellis.  The mass of evidence seems
 to justify the belief, that notwithstanding the re-
 moteness of their situation, they are one and the
 same  species.  The description  of the  oriental
 tree, given  in Ksempfer's Amcenitates exoticse,
 agrees  very closely  with that of the  American
 species.  [Note G.]  Like  our native Rhus, the
 Japanese tree possesses a poisonous  influence,
 and frequently causes a severe cutaneous affection
 in those who approach or gather it.  It only re-
 mains to shew, that a varnish may be obtained
 from the American Rhus vernix, to furnish strong
 presumptive evidence of the identity of the two.
    If an incision be made  in  the bark of our
 Rhus vernix in the spring or autumn, a quantity
 of thick  viscid fluid immediately exudes,  and
 sometimes with such rapidity as to drop off be-
 fore  it  can be  collected*  This  juice has an
 opaque,  whitish  appearance, and a strong, pene-
 trating, disagreeable  smell.  On exposure to the
 atmosphere,  its colour soon changes  to  a deep
 black.  It is extremely slow in drying, and  per-
 manently retains its black colour.
    In the month  of October, 1814, with the as-
 sistance of Dr. Pierson, whose case is afterwards
described; I collected several ounces of this juice
from a thicket of trees in Brighton.  Being  col- 
ICO             RHUS VERNIX.
lected in a phial, it retained  its whitish colour,
except at the surface, where it turned black from
its contact with the air in the upper part.  This
juice was kept for more than  two years  without
any change in its appearance.   In cold weather
it was extremely viscid, and flowed with difficulty.
    Different portions of this juice were submitted
to chemical examination.   It was perfectly insolu-
ble  in water,  although upon boiling  with it, it
formed a thick emulsion.  Alcohol dissolved it
sparingly, and the solution was  rendered turbid
by water.  JEther combined  with it more large-
ly, forming a thick, opaque compound.   Strong
sulphuric acid  combined with  it, producing  a
black solid mass.  Alkalies also combined  with
it, and a strong  solution of pearl ash dissolved a
portion of it,  which was  afterwards precipitated
by sulphuric acid.  It had an affinity for metallic
oxyds, and powdered litharge, upon being boiled
with it.  rendered it nearly solid.  In  distillation
at the heat of boiling water,  nothing  came  over
except a slight  film upon the surface of the wa-
ter.  When the heat was raised to the boiling
point of the juice, a quantity of thin, blackish, vol-
atile oil came over, which dried up on being ex-
posed to the  air, leaving a slight coating on the
surface of the vessel which  contained it.  The 
                POISON SUMACH.            101
portion remaining in the retort was much inspis-
sated, and upon cooling became nearly solid.
    Being desirous to  try the effect of this juice,
employed as  a varnish, I applied a coating of it
with a brush to  different surfaces of wood, glass,
tinned iron, paper, and cloth.  These were ex-
posed  to the air and  light  during the whole of
the months of July and  August, at the  expira-
tion of which period they had  not become dry.
Each of the coatings was half fluid and adhesive,
and had collected much  dust.  Upon the  cloth
and paper the juice had  spread extensively, giv-
ing them an oily appearance.
    Concluding  from  this experiment  that the
juice  could not be usefully employed in its crude
state, I endeavoured to render it more  drying  by
the addition of litharge.  The compound, which
resulted from boiling  with this  oxyd, became dry
in a short time, but was not distinguished for any
remarkable degree of lustre.
    The third and last experiment proved  more
satisfactory.   A quantity  of the juice was boiled
alone, until nearly all the volatile oil had escaped,
and the remainder was  reduced almost to the
state  of a resin.  In this state it was applied while
warm to several substances, which after  cooling
exhibited the most brilliant, glossy, jet black sur- 
103             RHUS VERNIX.
face.  The coating appeared very durable and
firm, and was not affected by moisture.  It was
elastic and perfectly opaque, and  seemed calcu-
lated to answer  the purposes of both paint and
varnish.
   The chemical constitution of the juice of the
Rhus vernix  seems, from the foregoing experi-
ments, to be most analogous to that  of the bal-
sams, consisting chiefly of a resin  and an essen-
tial oil.   The oil dissipates slowly at low temper-
atures, approaching in this  and some other res-
pects to the character of a fixed oil.   The resin,
when procured in  contact with the atmospheric
air, is black, opaque, and solid, rendered very ad-
hesive, and at length fluid by heat.
   A very distressing, cutaneous disease, it  is
well known, ensues in many persons from the con-
tact, and even  from the effluvium of this shrub.
The poisonous influence which produces  this  af-
fection is common to several  other trees  and
plants, such  as  the Poison  vine  or  Poison  ivy,
(Bhus radicans,) the Cashew nut, (Anacardium
occidentale,)  and  the Manchineel,  (Hippomane
mancinella.)   Even the garden  Rue, and com-
mon Oleander, are said to affect some persons  in
a similar manner.—The Rhus vernix is the most
formidable of this tribe which is found among us, 
               POISON SUMACH.             103
and occasionally produces the most severe effects.
It is however extremely various in its action, up-
on persons of different idosyncrasies.   Some can-
not come within  the atmosphere of  the shrub,
without suffering the most violent  consequences.
Other's are but slightly affected by handling it,
and some can even  rub, chew,  and swallow the
leaves without the smallest inconvenience.
    The most formidable cases in persons subject
to this poison, usually commence within twenty
four hours after the exposure.   The  interval  is
sometimes longer, but  more frequently  shorter.
The symptoms are generally  ushered in by a
sense of itching and a tumefaction of the hands
and face.  The swelling gradually extends  over
various parts of the body,  assuming an erysipela-
tous appearance.   The inflamed parts  become
more elevated, acquiring a livid redness, attended
with a painful burning sensation.   Small vesicles
now appear upon the surface, which extend and
run into each  other.  They contain a transparent
fluid, which by degrees becomes yellow, and  at
length  assumes a purulent appearance.  A dis-
charge takes place from these vesicles or pustules,
giving rise to a yellowish incrustation, which af-
terwards becomes brown.   In the mean  time an
insupportable  sensation of itching and burning is 
104              RHUS VERNIX.
felt.   The  inflamed parts become  excessively
swollen, so that not unfrequently the eyes are
closed, and the countenance assumes a shapeless
and cadaverous appearance, which has been com-
pared to that in malignant small  pox.  The dis-
ease  is usually at its height from the fourth to the
sixth day, after which the skin  and incrustations
begin to separate  from the diseased parts, and
the symptoms gradually subside.  It is not com-
mon for any scars or permanent traces of the dis-
ease   to  remain.  Notwithstanding  the  violent
character  which it sometimes assumes, I never
knew an authenticated case of its terminating fa-
tally.  It is however capable of occasioning the
most distressing symptoms.  Kalm, in his travels
in North America, mentions a person who, by the
simple exhalation of the Rhus vernix, was  swol-
len to such a degree, that " he was stiff as a log of
wood, and could only be turned about in sheets."
Dr. Thacher mentions a case, in which the head
and  body were swollen to a prodigious degree, so
as to occasion the loss of sight for some time: and
the patient recovered at the end of several weeks
with the loss of his hair and nails.
   Of the cases which have fallen under my no-
tice, the following affords a fair  instance of the
operation of this  poison, as it ordinarily effects 
               POISON SUMACH.             105
those who are constitutionally liable to it.   On the
27th of October, 1814, Dr. A. L. Pierson, then a
student of medicine, accompanied  me to Brighton
for the purpose of collecting the juice of the Rhus
vernix, growing at that place. He  had always
supposed  himself constitutionally exempt from
liability to the poison.  The  day proved warm,
and the effluvium  from the incisions we had made
in the trees was very powerful.  We were engag-
ed in the collection for upwards of an hour, dur-
ing which he was less exposed than myself, be-
ing absent a part  of the time.  His own account
of the symptoms which followed this  exposure is
as follows :
   " I felt no unpleasant effects  for  six  or seven
hours after returning to Boston. About 8 o'clock
P. M. I perceived the backs of my hands were
swollen and  puffy, but without pain  or itching;
my forehead and upper lip were soon  in the same
state.  On the morning of the SSth the tumefac-
tion had increased, and I discovered various other
parts of my body to be infected.  The backs of my
hands and wrists,  which were the most advanced,
began to  show small watery vesicles.  No appli-
cations were made till the  noon  of  this  day.  I
then applied  cloths dipped in lead water to one
hand and wrist, and in a spirituous solution of the
               14 
 106              RHUS VERNIX.
the corrosive muriate of mercury  to  the other.
From  this and subsequent  trials, I am induced
to prefer the lead.   The parts  began to itch—
the tumefaction increased—vesication  began to
take place on the swollen surface—small pustules
formed and ran into each other, and at last some
were formed as large as nutmegs.  On the 29th,
my eyes were nearly closed, in consequence of
the swelling of my forehead, eyebrows and cheeks.
The  contents of the vesicles  were perfectly lim-
pid—inoculation from them to other parts  had
no effect—neither in this   nor any subsequent
stage.  On the evening of  the  30th, the inflam-
mation appeared at its height.   The burning sen-
sation and itching were intolerable. I could scarce-
ly discern  any object.  On the 31st, the  pustules
began to appear a little milky—and  before night
the inflammation  was evidently on the  decline.
I this day "applied an ointment, composed of Ung.
Stramonii, 1  oz.—Subm. Hyd. c. Ammonia (white
precipitate)  1 dr. mixed—with a  very  pleasant
effect. It was  now soothing, although before it
had seemed to irritate, and  produced pain when
 applied.   November  1st, a  very free  desquama-
 tion began, first on my forehead, hands  and wrists.
 And in just a fortnight I was enabled to  leave my
 chamber, blessed with a new cuticle from the root 
                POISON SUMACH.            107
of the hair on my forehead to my breast, from the
middle of my forearm to the tips of my fingers,
and on the whole inside of my thighs.  The con-
stitutional effects of this thorough vesication were
but slight.   During the first five days, my pulses
were increased from ten to twenty strokes  in the
minute.  The time of duration of the inflamma-
tory symptoms in this case  accords pretty well
with the account of  Prof. Barton, who states, I
think, the height of it to be on the fifth  day. It
is worth observing, that the operation of the poi-
son seemed to have a  considerable effect in reliev-
ing me from dispeptic symptoms, with which I
had been previously troubled, and also benefitted
a chronic  inflammation of my eyes.  I am still
subject to an eruption of watery pustules between
my fingers, which dry up, and the  cuticle peels
off." Letter  dated July, 1815.
   Many constitutions are but slightly, or not at
all, affected by  the poison of the Rhus vernix.
This I find  to be my  own case.  After the same
exposure, which occasioned the case just detailed,
I experienced no ill consequence, except a slight
vesicular eruption on the backs of the hands and
about the eyes, which disappeared in a short time,
without farther inconvenience.  The same slight
affection I have felt upon several subsequent ex- 
108              RHUS VERNIX.
posures, particularly when making, from a recent
specimen, the  drawing which  accompanies this
account.
   I apprehend that a majority of persons are not
liable to the injurious effects of the poisonous su-
macs.  Among persons residing in the country,
exposures must occur  very  frequently from  the
abundance of these shrubs, especially of the Rhus
radicans, by roadsides and elsewhere.   Very few
however, in  proportion to the  number exposed,
have personal  experience of their deleterious ef-
fects.  In those on the contrary, in whom a con-
stitutional liability to the poison exists, the disease
frequently returns  several times during life, not-
withstanding the utmost precaution  in avoiding
its causes.   A gentleman  residing in  the  coun-
try informed me, that he had  been seven  times
poisoned to  the most  violent  degree.  In such
constitutions a slight exposure is sufficient to ex-
cite the disease.  I have known individuals bad-
ly poisoned in winter from the wood of the Rhus
vernix, accidentally burnt on  the fire.  Others
have made the  same observation.
   Some farther remarks on the poison of these
shrubs, and  on  the treatment of the  disease  oc-
casioned  by them, will be made in a future part
of this work, under the head of Bhus radicans. 
               POISON SUMACH.            109
   Many  interesting observations on the proper-
ties of these species of Sumach, will be found in
an inaugural dissertation, by Dr. Thomas Hors
field of  Bethlehem, Pa. a work of much industry
and merit.
   In the New York Medical Repository is an
 account of a swarm of bees, which, having alight-
ed on the branches of the Rhus vernix,  were  the
next day found dead, with their bodies black  and
swollen.  This is a remarkable  circumstance.
There is certainly no instinctive aversion in these
animals for the tree.  In the flowering season the
blossoms, which are  very fragrant, are always
thronged  with a multitude of winged insects in
quest of their honey.
    The introduction of the juice  into the  arts
will not perhaps take place among us, during the
present high price of labour, and the general pre-
judice which exists against the shrub.  In some fu-
ture period, it is probable that a substance, which is
found so valuable  in the eastern countries,  will
not be neglected among us.  It might  safely be
procured  by persons not subject to the poison,
 and, with proper precautions, would injure no one
 during its preparation and use.  A pound of the
juice in a day might  be  collected by an individ-
 ual.  When thoroughly dry, it ceases to emit an 
110                RnUS VERNIX.

effluvium, and nothing farther is to be apprehend-

ed from its effects.



             BOTANICAL  REFERENCES.

   Rhus vernix Linnjeus, Sp. pi.—Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 366.—
Michaux,  i.  183.—Pursh, i. 205.—Pennated toxicodendron
Ellis, Phil, trans, abr. xi. passim.  American  toxicodendron
Miller,  ibid.—Toxicodendron carolinianum foliis pinnatis,
&c. Mazeas, ibid. x. 595.—Toxicodendron foliis  alatis, fructu
rhomboideo, Dill. Elth. 390, t, 292, f, 377.—Arbor Americana
alatis foliis, succo lacteo, venenato, Plukenet, phyt. 1.145./. 1,



              MEDICAL REFERENCES.

   Dudley, Phil, trans, abr. vi. 507.—Sherard, ditto. 508.—*
Kalm, travels, i. 77.—Marshall, arbust. 130.—Cutler, Amer.
Acad. 427.—Barton,  Coll.  24.—Thacher, Disp. 321.—Hors-
field, Inaugural Dissertation.



                      PLATE  X.

   Fig. 1.  Rhus vernix, with staminiferousflowers.

   Fig. 2. A staminiferous or barren flower magnified.
    Fig. 3.  Stamens and rudiment of a pistil.
    Fig. 4.  A fertile flower magnified.
    Fig. 5.  Germ and stigmas.

    Fig. 6.  The fruit. 
       AMERICAN






MEDICAL BOTANY.





      VOLUME I.--PART II. 
 
 
ft//n       //trfrr/
fft/ti /// 
AMERICAN
MEDICAL  BOTANY.
         CONIUM MACULATUM.  *

                  Hemlock.

                  PLATE XI.
    A plant bearing the name of Conium, xumov,
has been noted as a poison from remote antiquity. In
consequence of the power which it possessed when
given in sufficient quantities, of destroying life in
a certain and almost immediate  manner,  it was
used at Athens as a mode of execution  for those
condemned to death by the tribunal of Areopagus.
Socrates andPhocion were among the distinguished
ancients, who suffered death by the agency of this
mortal poison.   The accounts which have  been
left respecting it would  lead us to believe that its
operation was speedy,  and unattended  with any
violent or long protracted suffering.  It was not
only employed as an instrument of public execu- 
 114           CONIUM MACULATUM.
 tions, but was resorted  to by those who sought to
 encounter suicide in its least  formidable shape.
 Among other instances, that of the Cean old men
 is related by iElian, who when they had  become
 useless to the state, and tired of the infirmities of
 life;  invited each other to a  banquet, and having
 crowned themselves as in celebration  of a joyous
 festival; drank the Conium, and terminated their
 existence together.
    The description  which has been  left  by Di-
 oscorides of the Conium,  only  shews it  to have
 been  an umbellate  plant,  his character of which
 might apply to  many  species.   The  mention
 made of it by Latin  writers under the  name of
 Cicuta are not more satisfactory.   Linnjeus, in-
 fluenced by the noxious  character of the  modern
 officinal Hemlock, has appropriated to that plant
 the name of the Grecian species, and most subse-
quent botanists have followed his example.  Hal-
ler, however, is of opinion that the ancient  poison
was not procured from  this plant, but from  the
Cicuta virosa L. a poisonous  aquatic,  much more
powerful and  violent in its operation than  the
common Hemlock.   Lamarck  adopts the opin-
ion of Linnaus, and believes that the Conium ma-
 culatum was really the Grecian poison, and that
 its properties were rendered more  active  bv  the 
HEMLOCK.
115
heat of the climate in which it grew.   Guersent
supposes that the  poisonous draught used by the
Greeks was not the product  of a  single species,
but a compound prepared from several plants.
    Were it not for  the tranquillity  and  ease
which attended death from the ancient hemlock,
and which  Plato  has described with  interesting
minuteness, there would not have been much diffi-
culty in supposing the Grecian plant to be the same
with that known at the present day. [Note H.]  It
appears that a large quantity was requisite to insure
death.  The poison was  swallowed  in the crude
juice, recently expressed from the  plant.  Of tins
the draught taken by Phocion was large enough to
cost twelve drachmas.*   Socrates was prevented
from making a libation of a  part of the  contents
of his fatal cup, by being told that the whole was
necessary to produce the consummation of his sen-
tence.  A large quantity of the  modern hemlock
might probably have been equally  fatal, though
with more violent symptoms  than  those which, if
Plato be correct, were experienced by the  Atheni-
an philosopher.
    The plant, represented in our plate, undoubt-
edly came  to us from  Europe.   It is now suffi-
ciently common in the United States, about road
    * Plutarch, Life of Phocion. 
HQ           CONIUM MACULATUM.
sides  and in waste ground,  especially  in  those
parts of the country which have been longest set-
tled.  It is usually found  in bunches,  and attains
the full height of a man.  It flowers  from  June
until the arrival of frost.
   The very natural  order, called Umbellatse by
Linnams  and Unibelliferse by Jussieu, to  which
this plant and the following one belong, is  found
in the class Pentandria and order Digynia of the
Linnaean artificial method.
    The  genus  Conium  of  Linnseus  has  both
general and partial  involucres,  the  latter  being
halved.  The fruit roundish and furrowed.
    The  species   maculatum  has  the fruit un-
armed with the ridges undulated.
    Its more  complete description  is  as follows.
Root biennial, somewhat fusiform  and generally
branched.  Stalk round, very smooth, striated, hol-
low, jointed, and more  or less marked  with pur-
plish spots.   Leaves  two or three times pinnate,
of a very bright green, with  long, sheathing peti-
 oles inserted on the joints of the stem ; the leafets
 pinnatifid  and  toothed.   Flowers  in  terminal
 umbels, the general  involucre with half a  dozen
 lanceolate, reflected  leafets, the partial involucre
 with three or four situated on the outside.   Flow-
 ers very small, white.  Petals five,  oval with their 
                  HEMLOCK.                117
points inflexed.  Stamens five, spreading, about the
length of the corolla.  Germ inferior.   Styles two
reflexed  outwardly.   Fruit  roundish-oval,  com-
pressed,  ribbed, the  ribs being transversely wrin-
kled or crenate ; separating into two oblong-hem-
ispherical seeds.
     Hemlock  when fresh has a strong nauseous
odour and taste.  If the green leaves are distilled,
the water which collects in the receiver has an in-
supportably nauseous taste, while that which re-
mains  in  the  retort is comparatively  insipid.
This circumstance, and likewise the fact that the
dried leaves become inert by age and exposure,
render it probable that the chief medicinal efficacy
resides in a volatile  portion of the plant.   Of the
more fixed ingredients of Hemlock, a variety of
analyses have been made.  The most recent which
I have met with is that of Schrader, who from  a
thousand grains of the plant obtained the following
substances.   Extractive 27.3—Gummy extract
35.2—Resin 1.5—Albumen  3.1—Green  faecula
8.—He also detected various  earthy and alkaline
salts.  These however are found to vary according
to the  soil in which  the plant grows.   The  vola-
tile portion, which  I obtained in water distilled
from the leaves, did not exhibit any essential oil,
and effected no change in the colour of litmus.  It 
 118          CONIUM MACULATUM.
 was not altered by sulphate of iron nor acetite of
 lead.
    The  Conium maculatum is a narcotic poison,
 though not of the most powerful kind.  Instances of
 fatal effects from it have been recorded by Dr. Wat-
 son in the Plulosophical Transactions, and  by sev-
 eral other writers. A remarkable case of this sort,
 which occurred in Spain, is cited by Orfila in his
 Traite des poisons.    But there is scarcely  any
 narcotic  plant respecting the character of which
 such various and opposite testimony has been ad-
 duced by medical writers.  Even the experiments
 of the same individual are apt to present different
results from its use, unless great care be taken in
 the collection  and  preparation  of the medicine.
 The truth is, the plant varies exceedingly at differ-
 ent ages, and in different places of growth, and the
 strength of its  preparations is greatly influenced by
external circumstances.
     When the  green  leaves of a mature plant
which has grown in the sun, or the juice of these
leaves, either crude, or properly  inspissated, is
 taken into the  stomach;  the following symptoms,
if the quantity has been  sufficient, will rarely fail
to take place  ; viz.  a  dizziness of the head  and
 nausea of the stomach, a sense of fullness in the
eyes and  diminished power of vision, together with 
                   HEMLOCK.               119
a general faintness  or  muscular weakness of the
whole body.   These  sensations usually begin  in
the course of half an hour.  If the dose has been
moderate, they will for the most part  disappear
in the course of half a day, and seldom continue
beyond twenty four hours.   Larger doses occasion
more severe symptoms, as  it happens with other
narcotics.
    The idiosyncrasies of different persons render
them variously susceptible of the action of Hem-
lock.  Some arc  but slightly affected by a quanti-
ty, which would prove dangerous to others.
    The Hemlock has been for many years a sub-
ject of attention  with physicians,  and has been
found a remedy of importance in several diseases.
It would occupy a volume to  state the whole  of
the  evidences  which have been  given for and
against its  use.   I shall only mention those com-
plaints in which it has been most employed, and
particularly in this country.
     In  Jaundice.—Dr. Fisher,  President of the
Massachusetts Medical Society, in his paper on the
narcotic  vegetables, bears unequivocal  testimony
in favour of the efficacy of Hemlock in this com-
plaint.  He was first induced to employ it  with
a view to its  relaxing  effect in  facilitating the
passage  of biliary  calculi.    Afterwards it was
                   16 
 120           CONIUM MACULATUM.
 given by him to many  icteric  patients,  and with
 the exception of three complicated cases, it never
 failed in his hands or within his knowledge to  re-
 move the disease.  Dr. Jackson, Professor of the
 Theory and Practice  of Physic in our University,
 informs me that he has  found it of great utility in
jaundice, and that except in one or two instances,
 it has always effected  the cure of  those  cases,
 which proved susceptible of relief from any medi-
 cine.   I have repeatedly employed it in the same
 complaint with indubitable advantage.  The dose
 should be gradually  increased until its effects are
distinctly felt  in the head and  stomach.  This
inconvenience is  temporary, and will be preferred
by most  patients to the evil of a mercurial ptya-
lism.   The  yellowness of the skin and eyes, in fa-
vourable cases, begins to disappear at an early pe-
riod, frequently by the second day.—The forego-
ing practice in jaundice is not new, having been
employed in Sweden by Rosenstein,  and in  other
places.
   In tic  doloureux.  In  a discourse  on this
painful disease by Dr. Jackson, published in the
New England Journal, Vol. II. a number of cases
are detailed, in which perfect relief was afforded by
the Hemlock given  in large doses, and rapidly in-
creased until a decided effect upon the system was 
                    HEMLOCK.                121
 felt.   Dr. Jackson recommends to begin with a
 single grain of the extract,  and to  increase to five
 grains for the second or third dose  ; afterwards to
 add five grains to every dose until a full  effect is
 felt on the system.  In this discourse he cites the
 experience of Dr. Fothergill,  who had employed
 the Conium  successfully in several cases of tliis
 disease under a different name.  It appears  also
 that  some French physicians, whose  writings  I
 have not seen, as Chaussier and Dumeril, have  con-
 firmed the success of our plant in tic  doloureux.
 It must be confessed however,  although the Hem-
 lock is more successful in this  complaint than  per-
 haps any  internal  medicine, which has  been tried;
 yet there  are cases of such obstinacy, as wholly to
 baffie the powers of its operation.
    In  schirrus and  cancer.   Since the time of
 Storck, this medicine has been  long and abundant-
 ly  tried,  but  without any increase of reputation.
 The experience of modern physicians, and among
 others of M. Alibert,  who tried it in more than  a
 hundred  cases in  the hospital of St. Louis, have
 pretty well established the fact, that it is wholly in-
 capable of curing either scliirrus or cancer of the
 confirmed and genuine kind.  It is however still ad-
 ministered, rather  with a view to its anodyne and
palliative effect, than any expectation of radical ben- 
12 2           CONIC M MAC ULAT l M.
efit.   In this way its external use is sometimes
serviceable.
     In old syphilitic  affections, it is  occasionally
useful.   It has been recommended in hooping
cough, but it is not a perfectly safe medicine for
children, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining when
its constitutional effects take place in them.—I
am informed on the best medical authority, that it is
of great use  in some cases of hemicrania, which
are not regularly intermittent.
   The most  common form  of preserving the
Hemlock for use, as well as the most convenient for
its exhibition, is that of the inspissated juice or ex-
tract.  It is well known however, that the extracts
kept in our shops differ materially in their strength,
so that in beginning from a new parcel, the physi-
cian can seldom predict the degree of operation of
his first doses.  In some instances very great quan-
tities have been taken  without  the least effect.
The extract is  apt to prove inert when the  plant
is gathered too young, when the evaporation is con-
ducted with  too much  heat, when a  decoction of
the dried plant has been evaporated instead of the
fresh leaves, and lastly when the extract itself has
become old.  To give the extract its due strength,
 the plant should be collected at full maturity, while
 in flower, or in fruit provided it remains green, and 
                     HEMLOCK.                 123
thejuice or the decoction should be evaporated at
the heat of boiling salt water.   The stock should be
renewed every year. A suitable dose for commence-
ment is from one  to five grains.   This may be in-
creased at every time of taking it, until its constitu-
tional effects are felt.  In  beginning the use of a
new parcel, more caution is requisite at first, than
after its strength has been tested.
    The  iEthusa  cynapium,  an  umbellate  plant
very common in Boston, has sometimes been mis-
taken for Hemlock, which it considerably resem-
bles.   It is  a smaller plant, with its stalk not spot-
ted.  It differs also in having no general  involucre.
while its partial one is very long.

            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
  Conium Maculatum, Linn^eus. Sp. PL—Woodville, t. 22.__
Curtis, Fl. Lond. i. 17.—Smith, Engl. Bot. 1.1191.—Pursh, i.
195—Cicuta vulgaris, Morison, Umb. t. 6.—Parkinson, Theatr.
933.—Cicuta major, Lamarck, Encyclopedic Methodique.—Ci-
cutaria vulgaris, Clusius, Hist. 200.

              MEDICAL REFERENCES.
  Murray, Apparatus medicaminum, i. 322.—Cullen, Mat. Med.
ii. 263.—Fothergill, Med. Obs.  iii.  400.—Hunter on the ve-
nereal, 108,175,199, 247, &c.—Home, Annals Med. iii. 66.—But-
ter, Med. Comment, i. 373.—Fisher, Mem. Mas. Soc. i.—Jack-
son, .V. Engl. Journ. ii. 105.—Guersent.  Diet. Sciences Medi-
ralcs, v. 208.—Orfila,  Toxicologic, iii. 279, &c. &c. &c. 
124           CONIUM MACULATUM.
                      PLATE XI.
          Fig. 4. A branch of Conium maculatum.
          Fig. 2. Flower magnified.
          Fig. 3. Fruit magnified. 
 
ri.ni.
n-.*



<x ,r/y^ /<v /   // / f/ftt /ft ff 
CICUTA  MACULATA.
                American Hemlock.

                    PLATE XII.
     At is a rule sanctioned by the observations of
 medical botanists, that umbelliferous plants, which
 grow in or about the water, are of a poisonous na-
 ture.  This rule will generally be found correct, al-
 though it has exceptions.  As far as aquatic plants
 of this natural order  have been examined, their
 properties, in a great majority of instances, have
 been found, more or  less  of a deleterious  kind.
 The Cicuta virosa of Europe is a highly poisonous
 plant, possessing such formidable activity that its
 internal use is hardly attempted in medicine.   An
 American species, the  Cicuta maculata, the sub-
ject of this article, is very closely allied in  its  bo-
 tanical habit to the European plant, and was equal-
 ly deserving of  suspicion from  its appearance, al-
 though the public were not  generally aware  of its
 true character.   Within a few years  past, several 
iZti
CICUTA MACLLATA.
instances  have been brought to light of fatal  ef-
fects  ensuing from this plant being incautiously
eaten by children.  It is therefore necessary that
the species should  be suitably  designated, that a
source of  so much  danger  may  be known  and
avoided.
     The  Cicuta maculata, to  which I have applied
the  name  of American  Hemlock,  not   having
heard any common  appellation  except  that of
Snakeweed, inhabits wet meadows and banks, from
t lie northern to the southern  limits of the  United
States, flowering in July and August.  It is so fre-
quently cut with hay, among  which it often grows
in large quantities, that we  might expect to see its
deleterious properties operating  on domestic  cat-
tle, were it not that their bodies  are  probably  less
susceptible of its  poison than  ours.  The Euro-
pean Cicuta, above mentioned, is highly noxious to
man, and to  some domestic animals, yet goats and
sheep eat it with impunity.
     The genus Cicuta differs from other genera
of  umbellate plants in  having  no general involu-
cre, a short, partial involucre, and  a fruit which is
nearly orbiciilar, compressed  and furrowed*

      This description of the fruit agrees with the present species
and also with Cicida bulbifera, a smaller species not uncommon about
Boston. The Cicuta \irosa of Europe I have never seen. 
              AMERICAN HEMLOCK.           127
   The  species maculata has a fascicled root and
oblong leaves with mucronate serratures.
   The class and orders are as in the  last article.
   This plant is so remarkable for the form  of its
root, that had not the name of maculata been con-
firmed to  me  by the best  authorities, I should
have thought that of fasciculata to be greatly pre-
ferable.   This  root is composed of a  number of
large,  oblong,  fleshy  tubers, diverging from the
base of the  stem, and frequently being found  of
the size and length of the finger.  The root is pe-
rennial, and has  a strong, penetrating  smell and
taste.   In  various  parts  of the  bark  it contains
distinct  cells or cavities,  which  are filled with a
yellowish resinous juice.  The plant is from  three
to six  feet high. Its stem is smooth, branched at
top, hollow, jointed, striated, and commonly of a
purple colour, except when the plant grows in the
shade, in which case it is green.   The leaves are
compound, the largest being about three times pin-
nate, the uppermost only ternate.  Most of the pe-
tioles  are furnished with  long  obtuse  stipules,
which clasp the stem with their base.   Leafets ob-
long acuminate,  serrate, the serratures very acute or
mucronated. The veins end in the notches, and not
at the points of the serratures.   The flowers  grow
in umbels of a middling size, without a general  invo-
              17 
 128            CICUTA MACULATA.
 lucre.  The partial umbels are furnished with in-
 volucres of very short, narrow, acute leafets.   The
 distinctness or separation of these umbels charac-
 terizes this plant at a distance among other plants
 of its kind, whose umbels are more crowded.  Ca-
 lyx of five very  minute  segments.   Petals  five,
 white, obovate with inflected points.  Fruit nearly
 orbicular,  compressed, ten furrowed,  crowned  at
 top, and separating into two semicircular seeds.
    The fleshy root of the Cicuta  maculata, when
 pressed, emits from its divided extremities a viscid
 yellowish juice of a strong penetrating taste.  This
juice dissolves in alcohol, from which it is precipi-
 tated by water.   AVhen distilled, a thick volatile
 oil  collects in  the  receiver in the form of a film
 upon the surface of the water.  The remainder of
 the juice yields a resin of a  dark orange colour,
 fusible and inflammable.   The decoction of the
 root affords a pearl coloured fluid, not very sensi-
 ble to the  tests  of  mucus, faecula,  tannin  or ex-
 tractive.
    In August 1814,  an account was sent to Bos-
 ton by Dr. Stockbridge of Bath (Maine) of the ef-
 fect produced on three boys by eating  a poisonous
 root, which they had  dug up,  supposing it  to be-
 long to the plant called " Life of man."  One  of
 them was  siezed with violent convulsions, frothed 
              AMERICAN HEMLOCK.           129
at the mouth, and died in an hour and a half.  The
other two were affected with vomiting, stupor, dil-
atation of the pupil, great paleness and universal
distress ; which symptoms disappeared in one in
twenty four, and in the other in thirty six  hours.
It was supposed that the first boy had swallowed
about a drachm of the root, and the others about
half that quantity.   A specimen of the plant was
sent to me at the same time with the account, and
proved  to  be the Cicuta maculata.   Dr. Stock-
bridge's letter,  which was published in the New
England Journal, contains two other cases  of the
effect of this root, in one of which it proved fatal.
    Shortly after the publication of the above facts,
an article appeared in the New York Medical Re-
pository, containing an  account  by  Dr. Ely of
Dutchess county,  of  the effects  of an unknown
poisonous root,  supposed to  be the white helle-
bore.   Three small boys, who had gone  into a
meadow in search of sweet flag root, had dug up
and eaten another root by  mistake.   Two of
them died in convulsions in  about an hour after
they had swallowed  it.   They discharged much
blood and froth  from the mouth and nose: their
eyes were fixed, with the pupils dilated, and a rapid
motion  of the  eye  lids.  The third  boy vomited,
and recovered.   When taken to the place the next 
 130           CICUTA MACULATA.
 day, he pointed out the spot where they had dug
 the root, and  where a considerable quantity of it
 remained.   Some of the root was planted  by Dr.
 Mitcliill in the New York Hospital garden, where
 it vegetated and produced flowers and fruit.   It
 turned out to be  the Cicuta  maculata of Linnaeus.
 In  the  same  article, is  a letter from Dr. Muhlen-
 berg, stating that he had received specimens from
 Savannah and  from West Pennsylvania, where it
had destroyed  several persons, who ate it by mis-
take for angelica.  All the specimens were  simi-
lar, so that there  could be no doubt of the identity
of the plant.  In the same letter, Dr. Muhlenberg
remarks, that he had reason to believe that the poi-
 sonous quality of the root is altered by cultivation
in a dry soil.
    The  foregoing facts  are sufficient to establish
the poisonous character  of the plant under consid-
eration.  They may also serve to shew the im-
portance of accurate descriptions and faithful en-
 gravings of noxious vegetables, which may enable
even unlearned  observers to distinguish them  at
 sight.  There  can  be little doubt that cases, like
those above described, have occurred  in repeated
instances, which have never  met the public eye.
Perhaps  also from an ignorance of the real  cause
 of the symptoms, the proper remedies have  been 
              AMERICAN HEMLOCK.           131
neglected.   The plant is  extremely common in
many parts of the United States, and I believe its
true character is not generally suspected.   A very
respectable physician informed  me, that it was
used in his vicinity as a gargle for sore throats, by
people unsuspicious of its qualities.
    Since the discovery of  its narcotic properties,
the Cicuta has been used in small doses, as a sub-
stitute for the conium, by one or two practitioners in
this place.  Its effects were very analogous to those
of the true hemlock, as far as they were observed,
but more powerful.   A primary symptom,  which
attended a large dose, was nausea and vomiting.
    The treatment of persons  poisoned  by this
plant, as in the case of other narcotics, should pri-
marily consist in a thorough evacuation of the stom-
ach.  As there commonly exists  a spontaneous
tendency to vomit, occasioned by the poison itself,
this should be assisted by mechanical means, by
irritating the throat with the finger, or with a feath-
er.  Of emetics, the  sulphate of  zinc is to be pre-
ferred, on account of its speedy  operation.  Cas-
tor oil or infusion  of senna, should be given as
soon as vomiting has  taken place.  The vegetable
acids, such as lemon  juice or vinegar,  have a neu-
tralizing influence on the  narcotic, and are there-
fore useful.  Strong coffee and tea are the best an- 
132            CICUTA MACULATA.
tidotes for the stupor, and should be promptly ad-
ministered.   In violent cases, bloodletting should
be  resorted to.  As most narcotic  poisons act  by
destroying the functions  of the brain, respiration
being  suspended, because it is under the influence
of that organ ; Mr. Brodie is of opinion,  that in
some cases, life might be preserved by keeping  up
artificial respiration,  after death has apparently
taken place.
            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Cicuta maculata. Linnaeus Sp.pl.—Pursh, i 195.—JEgopo-
dium foliis lanceolatis, acuminatis, serratis. Gronovius, Virg.
52.—Angelica Caribsearum elatior, olusatri folio ;  flore albo ;
seminibus luteis, striatis, cumini odore et sapore ?  Plukenet,
Aim. 31, Phyt. t. 76, f. 1.

             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Sciuepf, 36.—-Bart.  Coll. 18,  46.—Stockbridge, New
Engl. Journal, iii.  334.  Mitchill, Ely  and Muhlenberg,
Med. Repository, xvii. 303. 
\ 
PI. \ 111.
2.
'ts/Zj,,;,,   /tt/t/f/f,, 
KALMIA  LATIFOLIA.
               Mountain laurel.

                  PLATE XIU.
   A he Swedish botanist, Peter Kalm, a pupil of
Linnaeus,  who  travelled  in North America  in
1748—9, has had the honor of giving name to one
of the most elegant genera of flowering shrubs
which our continent produces.   The genus named
Kalmia by Linnaeus, includes  several species,  of
singular  beauty, among which the Mountain lau-
rel is much the largest and most elegant, as wrell as
the one whose properties have received most atten-
tion.  Its occurrence in the United States is  very
frequent, and its common appellations of course va-
rious.  The names of Laurel, Lambkill, Ivy, Spoon-
wood, and Calico bush, it seems, are  applied to it in
various parts of the country.  This shrub grows in
the southern parts of New Hampshire, and is oc-
casionally  met with  throughout Massachusetts.
In the Middle  States it becomes  more frequent, 
134            KALMIA LATIFOLIA.
and it is said to extend near to the  southern lim-
its of the Union.   Michaux, in his account of the
forest trees, states, that it is particularly abundant
through the whole range  of Allegany mountains,
upon the borders  and near the sources of rivers.
It gradually diminishes howeAer on both sides as
these rivers  approach to  the sea, or to their con-
fluence  with the great western streams.
   The botanical character of the genus  consists
in a five parted calyx, a hypocrateriform corolla,
containing ten depressions in its border, in which
the anthers are lodged; a capsule five celled.
   The specific  character is, that the  leaves are
scattered, petioled, oval and smooth ; the corymbs
terminal, viscid and pubescent.
   Class  Becandria, order Monogynia.   Natural
orders Bicornes, Linn. Bhododendra, Juss.
   The height of the Kalmia latifolia is generally
that of a shrub, sometimes however  attaining to
the altitude  of a  small  tree.  Its  leaves are ev-
ergreen, coriaceous, very smooth, with the under
side somewhat palest.  Their form is oval, acute
and entire ; their insertion by scattered petioles, on
the sides  and extremities of the branches.  The
flowers  vary from white to red; they grow in termi-
nal corymbs, simple  or compound with opposite
branches, and made up of slender peduncles. These 
               MOUNTAIN LAUREL.           135
are invested with a glutinous pubescence, and sup-
ported at base by  ovate, acuminate bractes.   The
calyx is small, five parted, persistent, with oval, a-
cute segments.   The corolla is monopetalous, with
a cylindrical tube, a spreadingdisc, and an erect,five
cleft margin.   At the circumference of the disc
on  the  inside, are ten depressions or pits, accom-
panied  with corresponding prominences on the
outside.   In these  depressions  the  anthers are
found lodged at the time when the flower expands.
The stamens  originate from the  base of the corol-
la, and bend outwardly, so as to lodge their an-
thers in the cells of the corolla.  From this con-
finement  they  liberate themselves  during the pe-
riod of flowering and strike  against  the  sides  of
the stigma.  The germ  is roundish, the style lon-
 ger than  the corolla and declined, the stigma ob-
 tuse.   Capsule  roundish, depressed, five  celled
 and five valved, with numerous small seeds.
    I have examined chemically  the leaves  of the
 Kalmia,  gathered at the time  the  shrub was  in
 fruit.  The following constituent principles were
 found to  exist in them.
    1. Vegetable mucus.   This exists in large quan-
 tities,  and is dissolved in water  both  by infusion
 and  decoction,  rendering it extremely mucilagi-
 nous or  ropy.  When alcohol is added to this so-
               18 
 136          KALMIA LATIFOLIA.
 lution, the mucus separates in the form of a floc-
 culent coagulum, ^\ hich is tough and stringy, and
 on drying has a brownish colour.   When chewed,
 it soon fills the  mouth with mucilage.
   Silicated potash  rendered the upper stratum of
 the liquid dark  and opaque, but  without any pre-
 cipitate like that which takes place in the mucilage
 of gum.
   2. Tannin.  This is readily thrown down from
 the decoction and  tincture by gelatin.   The sul-
 phate of iron strikes with it a very black colour.
   3. Resin.    This also  exists  plentifully.   It
 communicates to alcohol a reddish colour, and is
 instantly precipitated from it by water.  When
 obtained pure, it is of a reddish cast, fusible, in-
 flammable  and moderately bitter.
   I  have not detected any  extractive,  properly
 so called, in  these  leaves.   When the muriate of
tin is  added to the decoction, it  separates a very
 copious yellow precipitate.  This however is ow-
ing to the mucus.  If alcohol be first added to the
decoction, and the coagulum which it  forms with-
 drawn ; the fluid no longer gives a precipitate with
 muriate  of tin,  although it readily yields one to
 gelatin.
   Distillation with water affords a mild fluid with
 little taste or odour. 
               MOUNTAIN LAUREL.            137
   The Kalmia latifolia, together with some oth-
er species of its genus, has  long had the  reputa-
tion, in various parts of the country, of being poi-
sonous to certain domestic animals.   Catesby says
of it, that " deer feed on its  green leaves with im-
punity ; yet when cattle and sheep, by severe win-
ters  deprived of better food, feed on  the leaves of
this  plant, a great many of them die annually."
   Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who gave name
to this genus, says of Kalmia latifolia," The leaves
are poison to some  animals, and food for  others ;
experience has taught the people, that when sheep
eat of these leaves,  they either die immediately,
or fall very sick, and recover with great difficulty.
The  young and more tender sheep are killed by a
small portion, but the older ones can  bear  a stron-
ger dose.   Yet this food will likewise prove mor-
tal to them,  if they take too  much  of it.   The
same noxious effect it  shews  in regard to calves
which eat too much of the leaves ; they either die,
or do not recover easily.  I can remember that in
the year 1748 some calves ate  of the  leaves ;  they
fell very sick, swelled, foamed at the mouth and
could hardly stand ;  however, they were cured by
giving them gunpowder and other medicines.  The
sheep arc most exposed to be  tempted with these
leaves in winter, for after having been kept in sta- 
138            KALMIA LATIFOLIA.
bles for some months, they arc greedy of all greens,
especially if the snow still lies upon the ground,
and therefore  the  green but  poisonous leaves of
the Kalmia are to them very tempting.  Horses,
oxen and cows, which have eaten them, have like-
wise been very ill after the meal, and though none
of them ever died of eating these leaves, yet most
people believed, that if they took too great a por-
tion of them, death would  certainly be the result."
" On the other hand, the leaves of the Kalmia are
the food  of stags, when the snow covers the ground
and hides all other provisions from them.  There-
fore, if they be shot  in  winter, their  bowels are
found filled with these leaves,  and it is very extra-
ordinary, that if those bowels  are given to dogs,
they become quite stupid, and, as it were, intoxi-
cated, and  often fall so  sick, that they seem to be
at the  point of death ; but the people who have
eaten the venison have not felt the least indisposi-
tion."—Travels in North America, vol. i.
   There is a common belief, that the flesh of the
American  Pheasant  or  Partridge  is at  certain
times  imbued with a poisonous  quality.    This
circumstance  has  been attributed (I know not with
w hat evidence) to their feeding in winter upon the
buds of the Kalmia.   Mr. Wilson,  the ornitholo-
 gist, informs us, that he has sometimes found the 
               MOUNTAIN LAUREL.            139
crops of these birds distended almost entirely with
laurel buds ; but  that he  has eaten freely of  the
flesh of these  very birds, without any  ill conse-
quence whatever.
    On the  human system, the Kalmia has been
also said to manifest a deleterious influence. The
late Professor Barton has adduced some evidences
of its noxious character.*   He states that the  In-
dians make  use of a decoction of the leaves to  de-
stroy themselves.   In an  Inaugural Dissertation
on two species of  Kalmia,  the  latifolia and angus-
tifolia,  by Dr. G. K. Thomas, we are told that  the
leaves of these  shrubs possess a decidedly narcotic
property.   I have  not recently seen Dr. Thomas'
Dissertation, and   therefore  quote from memory
and from extracts.  From  his experiments howev-
er it appeared,  that a very small quantity wras suffi-
cient to produce sensible  inconvenience.  Thirty
drops of a strong decoction, given six times a day,
are said to have occasioned so much vertigo, as to
render it necessary to diminish the frequency of
its exhibition.
    From my own experience, I am not disposed
to think very highly of the narcotic power of  the
   * Dr. Barton states, that a few drops of the tincture poured upon
the body of a large and vigorous rattlesnake, killed the reptile in a
verv short time. 
140            KALMIA LATIFOLIA.
Kalmia.  I have repeatedly chewed and swallowed
a green leaf of the largest size, without perceiving
the least effect in consequence.   I have  also seen
the powder, freshly made from leaves recently dri-
ed, taken  in doses of from ten to twenty grains,
without any subsequent inconvenience or percep-
tible effect.  The taste of these leaves is perfectly
mild  and mucilaginous, being less  disagreeable
than that  of most of our  common  forest leaves.
   I am inclined to believe that the noxious effect
of the Kalmia upon young grazing animals may
be in some measure  attributed  to its  indigestible
quality, owing to the quantity of resin contained
in the leaves.
   An ointment made of the powdered leaves has
been recommended in tinea capitis and some oth-
er cutaneous affections.   I have seen an eruption,
very much resembling psora, removed by it.
   The wood of the Kalmia is hard and dense, ap-
proaching  in its character to that of box.   It is
much used for the handles of mechanics' tools, §c.
and it has even  been employed  as a material for
musical instruments.  As an ornamental shrub, this
species stands in the highest rank, and by the fre-
quency of its growth and the brilliancy of its flow-
ers,  it contributes in a  great  degree to  the ele-
gance  of  the natural scenery hi those  mountains 
MOUNTAIN LAUREL.
141
and woods, which  it inhabits.    When cultivated
in gardens, it requires  a soil which is  somewhat
moist, and a shady or northern aspect.


             BOTANICAL REFERENCES.

  Kalmia latifolia, Lin. Sp.  pi—Curtis, Bat. Mag. t. 175.—
Michaux/. Arbres forestiers, iii. 147, t. 5.—Pursh i. 296.—Cha-
msedaphne foliis tini, &c.—Catesby, Carolina, ii.t. 98.—Ledum
floribus bullatis, &c. Trew, t.  38.—Cistus chamserhododendros,
&c. Plukenet, Phyt. t. 379,/. 6.


              MEDICAL REFERENCES.

  Kalm, travels, i. 335, &c.—Bart. Coll. i. 18, 48; ii.  26.—
Thacher, Disp. 247.—Thomas, Inaugural dissertation.


                     PLATE XIII.

  Fig.  1. Branches of Kalmia latifolia with flowers and fruit.

  Fig.  2. Stamens.

  Fig.  3. Calyx and pistil 
SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.
              Carolina Pink root

                  PLATE XIV.
     tv e are told by different writers,  that this
fine  plant is  a  native of all the southern  states
from  Pennsylvania   to  Georgia and Louisiana,
growing in rich  soils, especially about the borders
of woods.  It does not bear the severity  of  a nor-
thern winter.  For my living specimens  I was in-
debted  to my excellent and  learned  friend,  the
late Dr. James Macbride, of Charleston, S. C.
   The genus Spigelia has a funnel shaped  corol-
la and a capsule, tvhich is double, two celled and
many seeded.  The species  Marilandica  is peren-
nial, with a simple stem and  opposite leaves.
   Class Pentandria; order Monogynia.   Natural
orders Stellatce, Lin.  Gentiance, Juss.
   The root of the Spigelia  Marilandica  is peren-
nial, with many fibrous branches.   The  stalks
proceed several  from  a root; they  are simple 
'A *ys/t rr  .  fr ft rf/sr /tr/er 
 
              CAROLINA PINK ROOT.          143
four sided and nearly smooth.  Leaves  opposite,
sessile, ovate, acuminate, entire, smooth, with the
margins  and  veins  sometimes  pubescent.   The
stalk  commonly terminates in a simple one-sided
raceme of flowers, although I have  seen luxuriant
specimens with two.  The peduncles are extreme-
ly short,  so that the raceme may without impro-
priety be denominated a spike.  Calyx persistent,
with five linear-subulate, finely serrulate leaves,
which are reflexed in the ripe fruit.  Corolla five
times as long as the calyx, scarlet  or  crimson
without,  orange coloured within, the tube inflated
and angular at  top, the border divided into five
acute, spreading segments.   Stamens  very  short,
inserted  into the mouth of the corolla between the
segments ;  anthers  oblong-heart shaped.   Germ
small, superior,  ovate.  Style longer than the co-
rolla, jointed near its base  and bearded at the ex-
tremity.   Capsule  double, consisting  of  two, co-
hering, one celled, globular portions, seated on a
common receptacle.
    The  Spigelia is a mucilaginous plant,  with a
mild and not very disagreeable taste.   The infu-
sion  and decoction  of the root and leaves afford
a flocculent precipitate with alcohol.  They are
discoloured but not precipitated by silicated pot-
ash.  They have little  sensibility to  gelatin, al-
              19 
144         SriGELIA MARILANDICA.
though the tincture is made turbid by it.  After the
decoction was filtrated from the mucus, which had
been coagulated by alcohol, it gave a precipitate
with nitrate of mercury, but none with muriate  of
tin.  Sulphate of iron caused a dark green precip-
itate from the decoction, and but little change  in
the tincture.  No distinct evidence of resin  pre-
sented itself.   A  substance which may perhaps
be  considered a variety of  extractive matter, ap-
pears to exist  in this plant,  as the  tincture  was
affected in nearly the same manner  by the salts
of tin  and mercury above  mentioned, as the fil-
trated decoction.
    Water  may be considered an adequate solvent
for the chief  proximate principles of this plant.
    The  medicinal reputation  of  the  Spigelia is
founded  on the powers which it  is supposed  to
possess as  a vermifuge.  This  reputation is  now
so generally established,  that  the plant has be-
come a considerable article of commerce to vari-
ous parts of the world, from  our southern  states.
This is  a  sufficient evidence,  that the medicine
has, to a certain extent, satisfied public expecta-
tion, and  obtained the sanction of  practitioners.
But beyond this, it is difficult to speak confident-
ly  on the subject.  The Spigelia belongs to  a
class of medicines, which are frequently prescrib- 
CAROLINA PINK ROOT.
145
ed, without positive proof of the existence  of the
cause which  they are  intended to  remove ; which
often fail altogether in the hands of the most suc-
cessful  practitioners ;  which  frequently succeed
merely  because they are  backed  with  medicines
of a more active class  ;  and whose  apparent suc-
cess  is sometimes the consequence solely of a dis-
eased state of the  body.*   Our plant  is  however
entitled to trial, especially where  it can be obtain-
ed fresh, and in full strength.   A  physician of the
southern states,  for whose opinion  I  have much
respect,  Dr.  Norcom  of  Edenton,  N. C. inform-
ed  me  some years  since, that the Spigelia  was

   * From the list of equivocal anthelmintics, I would  except those
which have a cathartic  operation, also a  number of mineral origin.
But I  am fully persuaded, that many reputed  vermifuges have en-
joyed a reputation which they do not deserve.  The Dolichos pruriens
has received the commendations  of practitioners and medical writers,
on the presumption that its spiculae exert the same stimulant effect on
the bodies of worms in the alimentary canal, that they do on the nu-
man skin externally. I was long  ago inclined to doubt  the powec
of these spiculae  to withstand the digestive process of the stomach.
My suspicions were confirmed upon finding that  simple macera^
tion in warm water  for an nour, dissolves their virus, and renders
them incapable of producing their usual  stimulus of itching, when
applied to the skin.  Some late experiments by my pupil, Dr. Chan-
dler, have shewn that the gastric juice destroys their activity in the
same manner.
  It is not necessary in this place  to revert to the Fern root of Mad-
ame Nouflier, and  various other exploded  anthelmintics of its kind. 
146          SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.
most active  when recently dried,  and that its
efficacy was  always  impaired by  keeping more
than  six months.   Dr. Garden  had  previously
made observations somewhat similar.  If this be
the case, we may account for  its failures in the
hands of those who obtain it at a distance when
half a dozen years old.
   Drs. Lining, Garden, and  Chalmers of Caroli-
na, are the  writers who first  introduced  the  Spi-
gelia to notice, and who  have spoken  most  une-
quivocally in its  praise.  Each of  these  physi-
cians has represented it as  an  anthelmintic  of
superior efficacy.   It appears  that under certain
circumstances,  it is capable of operating as  a ca-
thartic,  and that in these instances, the most ad-
vantage has been experienced from it.  Dr.  Gar-
den  says, that  he  had given it  in  hundreds of
cases, and that he " never found it do much  good
except when it proved gently purgative."  As the
action of the Spigelia upon the  bowels is quite
uncertain, most practitioners either  unite, or fol-
low  it with calomel or some purgative medicine*
    We are told that the pink root, when in  its
most active state, if given in large quantities, indu-
ces  narcotic symptoms, such as  stupor, headach,
dilated pupil, §c.  Dr.  H. Thompson, who  took
large doses of the root to try its effect on himself, 
              CAROLINA PINK ROOT.           147
found  that it produced an increased quickness  of
the pulse, drowsiness, flushing of the face  and
stiffness of the eyelids.   Dr. Chalmers  attributes
to its too free use the cases of two  children, who
died in convulsions.   Dr. Macbride  informs us
that its narcotic effects  are seldom or never at-
tended with  danger, and that  some  physicians
consider them an evidence of the favorable  opera-
tion of the medicine.  The opinion that this effect
is owing  to  the root of some  deleterious plant
taken up with the  Spigelia, seems to  be  void of
foundation.
    As in most other perennial plants, the root of
the Spigelia possesses a  greater share of activity
than the herb.  Of this root  ten grains may be
given in powder to a child four years  old,  twenty
to one which is  seven, and a drachm to an adult.
If no inconvenience ensue, it may be repeated two
or three times a day.  If the  infusion is  prefer-
red, an ounce of the root  may be infused in a pint
of water, and half the quantity taken by an adult
or one or two spoonfuls by a child.


           BOTAMCAL REFERENCES.
   Spigelia Marilandica, Linn. Sp. pi.—Curtis, Bot. Mag. t.
80.—Woodville, ii. t.  105.—Walter, Flor. Car. 92.—Mi-
chaux, i. 147.—Pursh, i. 139.—Elliott, i. 236.—Lonicera 
148
SPIGELIA MARILANDICA.
spicis terminalibus, &c. Gronov. Virg. 30.—Periclymcni  Vir-
giniani flore coccineo planta Marilandica, &c. Catesby, ii. t. 78.
               MEDICAL REFERENCES.

   Chalmers, on the weather and diseases of South Carolina, i.
67,—Lining, Essays, phys. and lit. i. 436.  Garden, ditto, iii.
145.—Home, Clin, exper. 420.—Murray, App. Med.  i. 548—
Macbride, in EllioWs Car. 237.—Thompson, Inaug. Diss.
                   PLATE XIV.

Fig. 1. Spigelia Marilandica.
Fig. 2. The capmle with the reflected calyx.
Fig. 3. Corolla opened. 
 

I'UV.


IK
/j/ffM/tt  /ffttrtf/r* 
          ASAEUM CANADENSE.


       Canada Snake root.  Wild ginger.

                   PLATE xv.
    A he properties of this mild aromatic  have
been so far  misconceived,  probably from  its re-
lation to  an European species,  that it would be
improper in a work of this  kind, to pass over it
without notice of its real character.  It  affords a
striking exception to the rule, that botanical affin-
ities are  capable   of indicating  the  medicinal
qualities of vegetables.  This plant in its effect on
the human  system, is widely different from the
European asarabacca, although it approaches it so
nearly in its form, that Michaux styles it " vix dis-
tinct um ab Europaeo."
    The As arum Canadense grows in old woods
and mountainous  tracts from Canada to Carolina.
It is one of the humblest  plants, presenting only
two leaves with tlieir  stalks, which  appear to con-
stitute the whole of the plant above the ground. 
  150          ASARUM canadense.
* On plucking the plant, the two leaves are found
 connected below, with an obscure flower in their
 fork,  which  had rested on  the surface  of the
 ground, or  been buried  under the decayed  leaves
 and soil.  Its flowering time is from May to July.
     This plant, from the number of its stamens,
 is  placed  by Linnaeus  and Michaux in the class
 Bodecandria.  Pursh, who has omitted this class
 in his Flora, has transferred the Asarums to Gy-
 nandria, from the circumstance that the stamens
 are inserted on the germ.  This  place however  is
 not better  suited to the Asarum, than to a multi-
 tude of other plants whose germ is inferior.
     Linnaeus' natural order for this plant is Sar-
 mentacece and Jussieu's Aristolochiw.
    Generic  character.   Calyx three or four  cleft,
 superior;   corolla none; anthers growing  to the
 middle  of the filaments.    Capsule   coriaceous,
 crowned.
     Specific  character.   Leaves two,  reniform;
 calyx  7voolly,  cleft to  the  base;  its segments
 spreading at top.
     The root of the Asarum  is creeping, fleshy,
 and somewhat jointed.  Leaves kidney shaped,
 pubescent on both sides, with long, round,  hairy
 petioles.  Flower solitary, growing from the fork
 of the stem, on a pendulous hairy peduncle.  Ca- 
                 WILD ginger.             151
lyx very hairy or woolly, consisting of three broad,
concave leafets, which are mostly of a brownish
or dull purple on the  inside at top and  bottom,
and terminated by a  long, spreading,  inflected
point,  with reflexed  sides.   The colour varies
greatly according to the  amount  of light which
the plant  enjoys, being sometimes nearly green.
Stamens twelve, inserted  on the  germ at a dis-
tance from the calyx,  the alternate ones longer.
Anthers growing to the filaments  below their ex-
tremity.  Near the divisions  of the  calyx  are
three short, curved, filamentary substances, which
may perhaps be called nectaries.  Germ  inferior,
somewhat hexagonal,  marked at top inside with a
dark red line ; style conical, striate, parted at top
into six recurved, radiating stigmas.
    The root of the Asarum has an agreeable aro-
matic taste, which is intermediate between that of
ginger  and the  aristolochia  serpentaria.  This
quality has given it the names of Wild ginger and
Snake root  in different sections  of the  country.
The name ColVsfool is also applied to it.
    The chemical trials, to which I have subjected
the root, bring to view the  following substances:—
1. A light coloured, pungent, volatile oil,  possess-
ing the characteristic taste and smell of the plant
in a high  degree.   2.  A resin, which is of a red-
              20 
Id2           asarum canadense.
dish colour and very bitter.   These two constitu-
ents communicate to aleohol the active properties
of the plant.  3. Fcecula.   4. A gummy mucus.
These exist in such quantities as to impede the
filtration of the  decoction.   Astringency hardly
exists in this root, as a gelatinous solution gave no
evidence of tannin,  and the sulphate of iron  pro-
duced a green colour hardly bordering on black.
    It has been asserted, and the statement copied
from one book to another, that the Asarum Cana-
dense is a powerful emetic.   I presume that sub-
sequent  writers  have taken their  opinion from
Cornutus, who, in his plants of Canada,  informs
us, that two spoonfuls of the juice of the leaves of
the Asarum, (meaning the European plant, rather
than the American,)  are found  to  evacuate the
stomach powerfully.  I can  hardly doubt, that if
such an operation has really  been produced  from
the  Canadian species,  it must have taken place
in irritable stomachs,  to whom two spoonfuls of
any crude vegetable  juice  would  have  proved
emetic.   Having seen  the root of tliis plant  used
in  the country  in considerable  quantities as a
 sudorific, I was   long since induced to doubt its
 emetic power.   Subsequent experience has  satis-
 fied me that the freshly powdered root,  given to
 the extent of half a drachm, and probably in still 
                  WILD GINGER.              153
larger quantity, excites no vomiting nor  even
nausea.
    Still however the plant deserves not to be dis-
carded from  use.   The aromatic flavour of  the
root is more agreeable than  that of the aristolochia
serpentaria,  which  article it seems  to resemble
in  its medicinal powers.   Several country  prac-
titioners, who have  employed  it,  have spoken to
me favourably of its  effect,  as a warm stimulant
and  diaphoretic.   As a substitute for ginger, in
common domestic use, I know of no  indigenous
article wrhich promises so fairly as this.
    Alcohol is  the  proper solvent for the  active
properties of this plant.   The tincture has a dark
red colour, and a highly concentrated taste of the
 root.


            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
    Asarum Canadense, Lin. Sp.pl.—Michaux, i. 279.—Pursh,
 ii. 596.—Asarum foliis reniformibus, mucronatis, binis, Grono-
 \ ius, 72.—Asaron Canadense, Cornutus, Canad. 24,  t.  25.__
  Asaron Americanum, Parkinson, theatr. 266.


              MEDICAL REFERENCES.
    Sch(epf, 72.—Bart. coll. 26, 48.—Coxe, Disp. 368. 
154
ASARUM  CANADENSE.
                   PLATE XV.
Fig. 1. Asarum Canadense.
Fig. 2. The germ with the stamens and nectareous filaments.
Fig. 3. A petal.
Fig. 4. A stamen a little magnified.
Fig. 5. Style and stigmas magnified. 
 
7.-/77.
'^V^y     ('V'/'///^/. 
IRIS VERSICOLOR.
          Blue Flag, or Flower de luce.

                  PLATE XVI.
    In the  Hortus  Elthamensis, published by
John J. Dillenius in 1732, there are figures of two
plants  under the name of " Iris Americana versi-
color," the one with  an entire,  the other with a
crenate style.  To one of these, the plant repre-
sented  in  our plate apparently belongs.  This
plant  however is so  subject to variation  in the
colour  of its flowers, the crenatures and direction
of its stigmas, §c. that it has received from differ-
ent botanists  dissimilar names.   The Linnaean
characters of Iris versicolor  and  Virginica are
hardly sufficient to distinguish them  from each
other.   Our  plant is the Iris versicolor of Muh-
lenburgh's catalogue, by his own declaration.  In
the character of its stem however, it agrees equally
well with Iris virginica of Linnaeus and Michaux.
It may be doubted whether the plant  figured in 
156             IRIS VERSICOLOR.
the Botanical Magazine, t. 703, is more than a va-
riety of this species.  The characters taken from
the comparative length of the  stem and  leaves,
of the inner petals and stigmas, and the direction
of the stem and of the stigmas ; are all subject to
variation.   Michaux, Elliott  and Pursh make the
Virginica synonymous with Iris hexagona of Wal-
ter, which seems  permanently  distinguished by
the deep furrows in the angles of its capsule.
   The Iris versicolor is found throughout  the
United  States in the borders of swamps  and in
wet meadows, of which it forms a principal orna-
ment in the month of June.  No race of veffeta-
bles can be better marked than the  elegant genus
to which this plant belongs.   They  are essential-
ly distinguished by a corolla,  parted into six seg-
ments or petals,  of which  three  are refiexed and
three are erect.  The stigmas resembling  petals.
The species in our plate has  ensiform leaves, its
stem acute on one  side, its capsules  oblong, three
sided, with obtuse angles.
   Class Triandria,—Order Monogynia.—Natur-
al orders, Ensatee, Lin. Irides, Juss.
   The root is fleshy, horizontal, sending down  a
multitude of fibres.  Stem two or three feet high,
round on one side, acute on the  other, frequently
branched, and bearing from  two to six flowers. 
                  BLUE  FLAG.              157
Leaves sword shaped, striated, sheathing at base.
Bractes becoming scarious.   Peduncles of various
length,  flattened on the inside.  Germ three cor-
nered, with flat sides  and obtuse  angles.  Outer
petals of the flower spatulate, beardless,  the bor-
der purple, the claw variegated with  green, yel-
low and  white,  and veined  with  purple.  Inner
petals erect, varying in  shape from  spatulate  to
lanceolate, usually paler  than the outer,  entire or
emarginate.  Style short, concealed; stigmas three,
petal-form,  purple or violet,  resting on the outer
petals, their extremeties bifid, crenate, and more
or less reflexed ; their lower lip short.  Stamens
concealed under the  stigmas, with  oblong-linear
anthers.  Capsule three  celled,  three  valved;
when ripe, oblong, turgid, three sided, with round-
ish angles.   Seeds numerous, flat.
    The young  leaves of this and some other spe-
cies of Iris, afford an excellent view  of the  spiral
filament, which lines the sap vessels of the leaf.
If a leaf, which has just emerged from the ground,
be  carefully  broken across, and  the segments
gradually drawn asunder, these fine filaments will
unroll themselves, and their spiral  structure be-
come very obvious to the microscope.
    The root of the Iris versicolor has a nauseous
taste, and when swallowed or held in the mouth, 
158             IRIS VERSICOLOR.
even in small quantities,  it  leaves behind a pow-
erful sense of heat and acrimony  in  the fauces.
Its most active chemical constituent appears to be
a  resin,  which separates  in the form of a white
precipitate, when  water is added to the alcoholic
solution.   The  decoction  suffers  little  or  no
change with alcohol, gelatin or salts of iron.  Mu-
riate of tin affects it slightly, the nitrate  of mer-
cury more abundantly.  Its taste is much weaker
than that of the tincture.  Water  distilled  from
the root has a highly nauseous taste and odour.
   The root of the Iris versicolor given medicin-
ally is  an active cathartic.   Mr. William Bartram,
in his travels in Georgia and Florida, informs  us,
that on his arrival at Ottasse,  an Indian town on
the Tallapoose, he found the  natives " fasting, tak-
ing medicine, and praying, to avert a grevious  ca-
lamity of sickness which had lately afflicted them,
and laid  in the grave abundance of their citizens.
The first seven or eight days, during which time
they eat  or  drink nothing,  but a meagre  gruel
made  of a little corn-flour  and water; taking at
the same time, by  way of medicine or  physic, a
strong decoction of the roots of the Iris versicolor,
which is a  powerful cathartic.  They hold this
root in high  estimation, and  every town cultivates
a  little plantation of  it.  having a large artificial 
                  BLUE FLAG.               159
pond just without the town, planted and almost
overgrown with it."
   Having myself formerly made use of this  root
in dispensary practice, I can bear  testimony  to
its efficacy as a medicine,  though not altogether
to its convenience.   A  small quantity of the re-
cent root, or a few grains of the root newly dried,
are generally certain and active in their operation
on the bowels.   They are however apt to occasion
a distressing nausea like sea sickness, with a pros-
tration  of strength  of  some hours'  continuance;
so that I think  the plant will not be like to come
into favor as a cathartic, at least when better ones
are at hand.   The activity of this article is dimin-
ished by age.
    The stimulating properties of the  Iris render
 it capable of exciting many of the secretions, as
 well as excretions.  But I know of no purpose
 for  which it seems better  calculated, than that of
 a diuretic.   The late Dr. Macbride of Carolina as-
 sured me, that-he had  found great benefit in drop-
 sical affections from a decoction of the roots of this
 plant in combination with those of Eryngium yuc-
 cifolium.  In  consequence of his  recommenda-
 tion, I administered the  tincture  of the Iris  in
 small doses to  several  persons affected  with ana-
 sarca and with  hydrothorax.  It was evidently of
                  21 
 160             IRIS VERSICOLOR.
 service to a majority of those who took it, for a cer-
 tain time.  That it did  not always  cure the  dis-
 ease, is a reproach which it must divide with diuret-
 ic remedies of much older celebrity.
    The Iris gracilis, a species described in the
 Florula Bostoniensis, the Iris pseudacorus of  Eu-
rope, and several others  of the genus, appear to
possess  properties very similar to  those of the
plant described.


           BOTANICAL  REFERENCES.
   Iris  versicolor, Lin. Sp. pi.—Dlllenius, Elth. t. 155.—
Curtis, Bot. Mag. t. 21, a variety.—Pursh, i. 29.—-Elliott,
 Car. i. 45.  Walter, Car. 67.                                    *»


             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Bartram, travels, 454,  Loud, edit.—Cutler, Mem. Amer.
Acad. 405—6.—Macbride, in Elliott's Car. i. 45.


                   PLATE XVI.
   Fig. 1. Iris versicolor.
   Fig. 2. Style and stigmas with a stamen. 
 
//' 
HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
                   Henbane.

                  PLATE XVII.*
     A here is little doubt that the Hyoscyamus of
this country is an imported plant.   It is yet rare
in most  parts  of the  country, and appears to be
strictly limited to the  bounds of cultivation.  Its
seeds are very tenacious of life, and will spring up
under favourable circumstances, after having been
dormant for a long time.  Hence the plant occa-
sionally  appears in old grounds which  have been
newly disturbed,  as in grave  yards, old  gardens
and cellars.   About ten years since, a drain, which
intersects the common in Boston, was opened for
the purpose of repairs.  In the following season
a distinct row of very luxuriant plants of Henbane
covered  the whole of this drain, although none of
them had been observed to grow in the vicinity
   * For the drawing which accompanies this article, I am indebted
to Dr. S. Bass of Salem. 
162           HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
the preceding year.  The seeds, which produced
these plants, had probably been buried for more
than fifteen  years.
   This species, together with others of its genus,
was well known to the ancients  under the same
name which it  now bears.   Its medicinal  and
deleterious properties  were also understood  by
them.
   In modern arrangements the Hyoscyamus in
common with Datura, Atropa and other injurious
vegetables of its  kindred, is found in the class and
order Pentandria Monogy nut, and the  natural  or-
der Luridce.  Its Jussieuean order is Solanece.
   In this  genus  the  corolla  is funnel shaped
and obtuse, the stamens  inclined,  the capsule  two
celled and covered with a lid.
   The present  species  has the lower  leaves sinu-
ated  and clasping,  and  thefiowers sessile.  It is
biennial and flowers in June and July,
   The whole herb has  a  glaucous or  sea  green
colour, is hairy and viscid,  and emits a rank, offen-
sive  smell.  The stalk  is one  or two feet high,
round, branching  and  rigid.   The  first  leaves
spread  upon the  ground, and  have some  re-
semblance to a  young  thistle.   They are large,
oblong,  frequently  contorted,  clasping,  cut  into 
                   HENBANE.               163
acute lobes, and pointed;  the upper ones general-
ly entire.
    The flowers form a revolute,  one  sided spike
at the end of the stem or branch, leaving, as they
fall off, a straight row of capsules.  The calyx has
five short acute segments.  The corolla is funnel
shaped, irregular, with five spreading, obtuse seg-
ments, of a pale yellow or straw colour,  with  a
beautiful net work of purple veins.  Stamens in-
serted in the tube of the corolla, with large oblong
anthers.   Style slender, longer than the stamens,
declined,  with an obtuse  stigma.  Capsule two
celled, roundish, covered with a lid, and invested
with  the  persistent calyx, the segments of which
extend beyond the calyx,  and become rigid and
prickly.   The seeds are numerous, small, unequal,
brownish, and are  discharged by the  horizontal
separation of the lid.
    From such chemical experiments  as  I  have
made with the dried leaves  of the Hyoscyamus,
I  am inclined to believe, that their chief  soluble
portion is a variety  of extractive  matter.  The
watery and alcoholic solutions do not disturb each
other, and  the usual  tests of tannin produce in-
considerable, or no alteration in  either.  Of vari-
ous metallic salts which affected the solutions, the 
164
HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
nitrate  of mercury gave  the largest precipitate  in
my experiments.
    The Hyoscyamus  has long been  known as a
narcotic  poison.   This character it uniformly ex-
erts in  regard to mankind,  although many  brute
animals are exempt from its influence.*   Diosco-
rides  speaks of it as  producing drowsiness and de-
lirium.

   * Horses, goats, sheep and swine are said to eat it without inju-
ry.   Brute animals are frequently less susceptible of the influence of
poisons than mankind.  In the experiments which have been made on
them to test the effect of doubtful medicines, the  positive evidences
of activity which they furnish, are in general more to be depended
on,  than the negative. That is, if an animal suffers from the action
of any substance, a man would  be like to suffer somewhat in the
same way.  Yet if the animal escapes with impunity, it does not fol-
low that the man would be equally fortunate.  There is scarcely any
narcotic plant which is not devoured by some species of quadruped.
Professor Pallas has stated, that the hedgehog can devour Cantharides
by hundreds without inconvenience, whereas one of these insects may
occasion serious trouble to a man. The following case happened un-
der my own observation.  A large eagle, (Falco ossifragus,)  intend-
ed for a cabinet of natural  history, was  subjected to a variety of ex-
periments, with a view to destroy him without injuring his plumage.
A number of mineral poisons were successively  given him  without
effect,  even in large doses.  At  length a drachm  of corrosive subli-
mate of mercury was inclosed in a small fish and given him to eat.
After swallowing the whole of this, he continued, to appearance, per-
fectly well and free from  inconvenience.  The next day  an equal
quantity  of arsenic was given him without any better  success.  So
that in the end, the refractory bird was obliged to be put to death by
mechanical means. 
                  HENBANE.               165
   The instances recorded of deleterious  conse-
quences, ensuing  from the Hyoscyamus  incau-
tiously taken, are  exceedingly numerous.   In a
number of cases the roots have been introduced
by mistake among culinary vegetables, and have
occasioned alarming  symptoms in whole families
at once.   In a case cited by Wepfer, the  monks
of a whole monastery, in consequence of some
roots being boiled among those of chicory with
their food, were seized with raving delirium,  ac-
companied by intense thirst, impaired vision and
other violent affections.   Dr. Patouillat has  re-
corded in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 40,
the case of nine persons, who were affected with
loss of speech, convulsions, and at length with vi-
olent delirium.   These  symptoms  subsided  on
the subsequent day, when it was found that some
roots of Henbane had been dug up in the  garden
the preceding day by  mistake for parsnips, and
boiled in the soup on which the family had dined.
Sir Hans Sloane,  in the  same Transactions  for
1733, has given an instance of effects equally dan-
gerous, occurring in some children  who  ate  the
capsules of this plant, supposing them to be fil-
berds.  Even the odour  of this noxious vegetable
seems capable of exciting  its characteristic ef-
fects.   In  a case  cited by  Murray  from  the 
166           HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
Gazette de Sante of 1773—4, some servants  who
slept in a barn, where the Henbane  had been
scattered for a defense against rats, awoke  with
head-ach, dizziness and vomiting.
   In instances where death has  ensued from
swallowing  this  plant,  the stomach has  been
found to exhibit marks of inflammation, and  dark
or gangrenous spots.
   The principal use which is made of Hyoscya-
mus in medicine, is as a substitute for opium, in
cases where  that article  disagrees  with  the pa-
tient, or is contraindicated by  particular symp-
toms.  It appears to be free from the  constipat-
ing qualities of opium, and in some instances it is
found to fulfil the  indications which call for an
anodyne and soporific  remarkably well.   Among
medical writers who have spoken favourably of its
operation are Dr. Whytt, who employed  it in va-
rious nervous diseases, and Mr. Burns, author of
different obstetric works, by whom it  is  recom-
mended as  preferable  to  opium  in certain puer-
peral complaints.   Mr. Benjamin Bell states, that
he found great advantage from its use in  trouble-
some cases of chordee, after opium had failed  to
give  relief.
   It must be acknowledged however, that Hyos-
cyamus is far less uniform and equal in its opera- 
                    HENBANE.                167
tion than opium, and that although in some con-
stitutions it mitigates pain, quiets irritation,  and
procures  sleep; yet in  others  it  produces  un-
pleasant nausea, confusion of ideas, head-ach, and
sleep which is laborious and unrefreshing.  It is
rather a secondary medicine, to be resorted to af-
ter the failure of opium, than one which we may
confidently apply to at first, with  reliance  on its
anodyne effects.
    The Henbane was found efficacious in the dis-
ease of colica pictorum by Stoll and several others.
Its  external  application in  the  form of  a cata-
plasm of the bruised leaves has given relief in va-
rious tumors and painful  affections.
    For internal use the extract should be prepar-
ed in the same way as that of stramonium.   From
one to three  grains of this  extract is a suitable
commencing  dose,  which  may  be gradually in-
creased until its effects are perceived.

           BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Hyoscyamus niger, Linn. Sp. pi.—Woodville, i.  t. 52.__
Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 591.—Pursh, i.  141.—Hyoscyamus flavus,
Fuchsius, Hist. 791.—Hyoscyamus vulgaris, Bauhin, J. iii. 627.

            MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Stoll, ratio med, iii. 13, 423.—Cullen, Mat. Med. ii. 271.
Fothergill, Med.  Soc.  Lond.  i.  310.—tHome, clinical expHs?
              22 
168
HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
197.—Withering, Med.  Comment. Dec. II, vi.  367.—King-
lake, Lond. Med. and Phys. Journal, v. 438.—Brown, ditto, iii.
406.—Murray. App. Med. i. 655, &c. &c.



                      PLATE XVII.

   Fig. 1. Hyoscyamus niger.
   Fig. 2. Corolla laid open.
   Fig. 3. Calyx.
   Fig, 4. Calyx of the fruit laid open to shew the capsule within it. 
 
.mil.
'ft ///// /vy 
SOLANUM  DULCAMARA.
                 Bitter sweet.

                 plate xvin.
    tV hether the plant represented in our plate
is originally of American growth, or has been in-
troduced since the discovery of this continent, it
is  now  difficult to  say.  It  is certainly a hardy
Vegetable, and although its  natural soil is at the
water side,  yet it easily  becomes habituated to
shady,  fertile  ground  of  almost any  elevation.
The most luxuriant  specimens  are found  about
brooks  and  ditches  and  in  sheltered situations,
where the roots have free access to water.  In these
places the stalks frequently  extend some way on
the surface, sending down  a multitude of radicles
into the mud  below.   When the plant grows in
higher ground and more exposed to the light,  its
growth is restricted,  and the flowers are less bril-
liant in colour. 
170          SOLAN CM DULCAMARA.
   The names of Bitter sweet and  Woody night-
shade are the most frequent English appellations
of this vegetable.   The former of these is also ap-
plied to the  Celastrus scandens, a very different
plant.  The frequent changes which always take
place in the application of vulgar names, renders
a reliance on them unsafe,  and  indeed  makes  it
useless to collect or preserve  more  than a few of
the principal ones.
   The genus Solatium  is  remarkable for the
great variety and  almost opposite character which
takes place among its species.  The common Po-
tatoe, the Egg plant, the Tomato,  the  Jerusalem
cherry, and the Black nightshade, are all species
of this multiform genus.   The common character
which binds them together, consists  in a rotate
corolla;  the anthers cohering, with a double open-
ing at top; the berry two celled.  The  species
Dulcamara  is  distinguished from  others  by its
stem, which is shrubby ;  unarmed  and fiexuous;
its leaves aunculated ; and its panicles resembling
cymes.
    Class Pentandria,—Order Monogynia,—Natu-
ral orders Luridw, Linn.   Solanew, Juss.
    The Bitter sweet is entitled to the character
of a vine rather than shrub.   The stem is woody,
 slender, climbing in large plants to the height of 
                 BITTER SWEET.            171
five or six feet.   Leaves petioled, ovate, acute, en-
tire, furnished at the base with two  appendages,
which give them somewhat of a hastate form.  The
lower  and upper leaves are  frequently without
these appendages.  The flowers form a loose, nod-
ding cluster or panicle, shaped like a cyme, and
taking its origin opposite to a leaf.   Calyx  of five
short, purplish, persistent segments.   Corolla ro-
tate, becoming reflexed as it grows old, divided in-
to five acute  segments, which are purple, and
marked with two whitish dots  at the base of each.
The filaments are much shorter than the anthers,
and inserted in the short tube of the corolla.  An-
thers  yellow, erect, cohering,  so as to form a con-
ical tube around the style.   Germ  oval; style
longer than the stamens ; stigma simple.  The
berries  are oval, of a bright scarlet  colour, and
continue to hang in bunches after the leaves have
fallen.
    The taste and smell of the Dulcamara are less
nauseous than those of many other species of So-
lanum.   Water  seems  a perfect  solvent  for its
most  sensible constituents.   The chief soluble
portion  seems to be a kind of mucous extractive,
which  is  taken up by  both  water and  alcohol,
(hough most by the former.   The  nitrate of mer-
cury and  muriate  of tin, gave precipitates from 
 172          SOLANUM DULCAMARA.
 both, though most from the water.  The chemic-
 al evidences of astringency were very slight.
    From the experiments of Hartmann and Kuhn,
 cited by Murray,  we may infer  that  water  is a
 better solvent for this  plant  than alcohol.  An
 ounce of the twigs or stalks treated with  alcohol
 afforded two drachms and two  scruples of extract.
 The same quantity treated with water gave three
 drachms and thirty five grains.
   The Solanum dulcamara has formerly receiv-
 ed the commendations of many authors, some of
 whose names are  of  high authority in medicine.
 The diseases in which it has acquired confidence,
 are chronic rheumatism, gout,  secondary syphilis,
 incipient phthisis, asthma, jaundice.   But what-
ever may be its efficacy in these complaints, it has
 in modern practice  given place  to more  active
 medicines.   Its most permanent and merited rep-
 utation at the present day, is derived from its ap-
 plication to external  complaints, and particularly
 to cutaneous diseases.  In dissertations upon the
 properties of this plant by Linnaeus and by Car-
 rere, its use is highly commended in  herpes, in
 scabies, and in some of the secondary forms of
 syphilis.   Professor  Murray has  added his own
testimony to that of these writers,  and  speaks de- 
                 BITTER SWEET.             173
 cisively of Ins success with it in cutaneous diseas-
 es of an inveterate character.
    In  the more recent and  splendid works  of
 Willan and  Bateman on  Diseases  of the  Skin,
 we find some important testimony of the efficacy
 of the Dulcamara in cutaneous affections.   The
 former of these authors has inserted in his  work
 a letter of Dr. Crichton, physician  to the  West-
 minster hospital, who had employed the article
 for a considerable number  of years.  This gen-
 tleman states,  that  out of  twenty three cases  of
 Lepra Graecorum, in which he had  used it, two
only had resisted its action.   He does not  assert
that it is  equally efficacious in other cutaneous
diseases, although it had appeared to him to do
good in psoriasis and pityriasis.  His mode  of
employing it was  as follows :
   Take of stalks of Dulcamara, one ounce ; wa-
ter,  a  pound and a  half;  boil to a pound,  and
strain when cold.
   Of this  decoction the patient took two ounces
at first, morning,  noon and  night, but the  quan-
tity was afterwards increased, until it amounted  to
a pint per day.   At  the same time  the skin was
ordered to  be washed with a stronger decoction,
which proved  an auxiliary to the  cure.    Dr.
Crichton found that in delicate people and hyster- 
174          SOLANUM DULCAMARA.
ical women, it often produced syncope  and slight
palpitation of the heart, nowv and then nausea and
giddiness.   But if the  dose was diminished, or
any aromatic tincture added, it ceased to produce
uneasy symptoms.   The good effects of the rem-
edy were  seldom perceived until  after the  first
eight days.
   Dr. Bateman considers, that " one of the most
effectual  remedies  for lepra under all its varieties
is the decoction  of the leaves and twigs of the So-
lanum dulcamara."   He  administers it in  the
same way with that just described.   "When,"
says  he, " there is a degree of torpor in the super-
ficial vessels, the  same  decoction  made  with a
larger  proportion of the shrub, is advantageously
employed as a lotion  ; but if there  is any  inflam-
matory disposition, this  and every  other external
stimulus must be prohibited."
   I have employed the Bitter sweet, both in sub-
stance and in decoction in a number of cutaneous
affections.   It appears  to  be a valuable auxiliary
to mercury in  the treatment of syphilitic erup-
tions.  I have  also known herpetic eruptions to
yield to its internal and external use.  The Amer-
ican plant however, when gathered in full  vigour,
does not set easily on the stomach in large doses.
I have known vomiting produced by a few grains 
                 BITTER SWEET-             175
of the powdered leaves, and by a small cup of the
decoction.  The strength  of the  plant seems to
vary in some degree with  the time of gather-
ing, and mode of preserving.   Dr. Cullen found
different parcels  of the article to exhibit very dif-
ferent   degrees  of strength.   Writers are  not
agreed as  to its immediate effects on the head and
stomach, probably from the different age and con-
dition of the medicine employed, by them.  From
my own observation I am induced to consider the
appearance of slight narcotic symptoms, as an ev-
idence of  the goodness of the medicine, and as a
criterion for regulating the dose.  The formula of
Dr. Crichton for the  decoction appears to  be  a
good one,  but in  the case of delicate constitutions,
the commencing dose should not exceed an ounce,
which  may be afterwards increased according to
circumstances.  The   addition of a little  cinna-
mon renders the decoction less apt to offend the
stomach.


           BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Solanum dulcamara, Linnjbus, Sp. pi.—Woodville, t. 33.—
Smith, Engl. Bot. t. 565.—Pursh, i. 156.—Solanum scandens,
sen dulcamara.—Tournefort, Paris,  43.—Glycypicros sivo
amaradulcis, J. Bauhin, ii. 109.
                23 
176
SOLANUM DULCAMARA.
              MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Booerhaave, Hist. hort. L. B. 506.—Linnjeus, Amcen. Acad.
iv. 39, and viii. 62.—Murray, App. med. 60S.—Carrere, sur
la Douce-amere,  1780, and in Med. and Phys. Journal, i. 307.—
Cullen, Mat. Med. iL 554—Willan, on Cutaneous diseases, 145.
—Bateman, on ditto, 35.—Oreila, despoisons, 192:


                    PLATE XVIII.
   Fig.  1. Solanum dulcamara.
   Fig.  2. Corolla.
   Fig.  3. Tube of anthers laid open.
   Fig.  4. Stamen,
   Fig.  5. Calyx and pistil. 
 
XJJi(
r,„. li
Fio  III
"W
f/'s///f    t////a//
 
LOBELIA INFLATA.
                Indian  tobacco.

                  PLATE XIX.
   In the  United States there are many species
of Lobelia, which are interesting for their beauty,
singularity or use.   We have  few  plants  more
elegant than the  cardinal flower, and  few  more
curious in structure than the Lobelia  Dortmanna.
In medicinal powers, the subject of this article is
entitled to take precedence of the rest.  It is  an
annual plant, found in fields and road sides, from
Canada to the southern  states.   It flowers from
midsummer until the arrival of frosts.
  The genus Lobelia has a flve cleft  calyx; a
monopetalous, irregular corolla, with a cleft tube;
the anthers cohering;  the  capsule two or three
celled.
   The  species inflata is branching and hairy.
with ovate, serrate leaves, and turgid capsules. 
178            LOBELIA INFLATA.
   The connexion of the anthers into a tube has
caused some ambiguity and difference of opinion,
as to the place  winch this  genus should occupy,
in the Linnaean system.  Linnseus placed it in his
order Monogamia of the class Syngenesia.   Most
of our late botanists have  very properly  remov-
ed the  plants  of this order from the compound
flowers, with which they have no natural affinity,
to Pentandria, which place their number of sta-
mens authorizes them to occupy.  Pursh has pla-
ced the Lobelias under Monadelphia.   The Nat-
ural  order  which contains  them  is the   Cam-
panaceas of Linnaeus  and Jussieu.
   The Lobelia inflata varies in height from six
inches to two or three feet.  The small plants are
nearly  simple,  the  large  ones  much branched.
Root fibrous.  Stem  erect, in the full  sized  plant
much  branched, angular,  very  hairy.    Leaves
scattered, sessile, oval, serrate,  veiny and hairy.
Flowers in spikes or racemes, pedunculated, each
one in  the axil of a small leaf.   Segments of the
calyx lineai*, acute, standing on the germ, w Inch is
oval  and  striated.   Corolla bluish  purple, the
tube prismatic  and  cleft  above, the  segments
spreading,  acute, the two  upper ones lanceolate,
the three lower ones oval.   Anthers collected in-
to an  oblong,  curved  body, purple •  filaments 
                INDIAN TOBACCO.             179
white.  Style filiform ;  stigma curved and inclos-
ed by the anthers.   Capsules two celled,  turgid,
oval,  compressed, ten angled, covered with the ca-
lyx.   Seeds numerous, small, oblong, brown.
   The Lobelia inflata when broken, emits a milky
juice. When  chewed, it communicates  to  the
mouth a burning, acrimonious  sensation, not  un-
like the taste of green  tobacco.  It  exhibits  the
following  noticeable  ingredients upon  chemical
examination.  1.  An acrid principle.   This is ev-
ident to the taste in the tincture, decoction,  and
distilled water.   2.  Caoutchouc.  Sulphuric ether
dissolves more  of the plant than alcohol, and ac-
quires a higher colour.   The  solution in alcohol
is scarcely rendered turbid by water, that in ether
is  disturbed by alcohol,  and grows thick as the
ether evaporates.   3. Extractive. No gummy or
astringent qualities were manifested in my exper-
iments.
   The great acrimony of the leaves and capsules,
combined with a narcotic  property, appears to be
the foundation of  their  medicinal  power.  Dr.
Cutler informs us,  that if the  leaves be held for
some time in the mouth, they produce giddiness
and  pain  in the head, with a trembling  agitation
of the whole body, and at length bring on  nausea
and  vomiting.   These  effects  are  analagous  to 
 180           LOBELIA INFLATA.
those, which the chewing or smoking of tobacco
occasions in persons unaccustomed to its use.
    When swallowed in substance, it excites very
speedy  vomiting,  accompanied  with  distressing
and long continued sickness, and even with dan-
gerous symptoms, if the dose be large.   A melan-
choly instance of death, occasioned by the use of
this plant, in the hands of a quack, is detailed  in
the sixth volume of the Massachusetts  Reports, in
the trial of Samuel Thomson, an empiric practising
in  Beverly,  for the murder of Ezra  Lovett.  In
this trial it appeared, that the patient, being con-
fined by a cold, sent for the pretended physician,
who gave him three  powders  of Lobelia in  the
course of half an hour,  each of which vomited him
violently,  and left him in a great perspiration
during the night.  The next  day two more  pow-
ders were administered, each of which  operated
by  vomiting and  occasioned great distress.   In
like manner two other powders  were given  the
subsequent  day,  leaving  the  patient  in  a  state
of great prostration.  Several days after this,  the
physician came  again, and  finding  his  patient
still worse,  administered  several  more powders,
which  occasioned  great distress, and at length
ceased to operate.   Finding that the stomach was
not sensible to the emetic effect of the Lobelia. 
                INDIAN TOBACCO.            181
 the physician repeated the dose, and when the pa-
 tient complained of great distress at the breast
 and said he was dying, the doctor assured him the
 medicine would soon get down, or operate as a ca-
 thartic.   However, on the same evening,  the pa-
 tient lost his reason and became convulsed, so that
 two  men were required to hold Mm.  To relieve
 which, the doctor forced  down two more of his
 powders,  and the patient, as was to be expected,
 grew worse, and continued so until he expired.
   The doctor, who had thus terminated the dis-
 ease and the patient at once, was arrested and put
 upon trial for murder ;  but the homicide proving
 a legitimate one from the  want of sufficient evi-
dence of malice  propense, he was acquitted and
 set at liberty.
   From the violence of its effects, and the dis-
tressing  nausea which it occasions, it is probable
 that the Lobelia will never come into use for the
common purposes of an emetic, while other emet-
 ics can be obtained.  It has however been found
 to exert a beneficial influence on particular diseas-
es, and on  this account is entitled to a place in
 the Materia Medica.  Dr. Cutler,  and  a number
 of physicians in Essex county and elsewhere, have
 found benefit from its use  in asthma, some in dos-
 es of a table spoonful  of  the  saturated tincture. 
18S           LOBELIA INFLATA.
others in doses of a teaspoonful.   Indeed the for-
mer dose appears  to be  a  very large  one, and
greater than most stomachs would bear  with im-
punity.   I have tried this  medicine in'  several
cases of asthma with some  advantage.  It has
not however in general succeeded in affording re-
lief of the paroxysm, until full vomiting was pro-
duced, which effect, with me, has happened  after
taking one or two teaspoonfuls.
   A communication from Dr. Cutler, on  the op-
eration of this  plant, is inserted  in Dr. Thacher's
Dispensatory.   The venerable writer having him-
self  suffered from asthma for ten years,  had, dur-
ing the  paroxysms, resorted to  many  medicines
for relief, without experiencing much benefit from
any.  He was at length induced to make  trial of
a tincture, prepared by himself from the  Lobelia
inflata.  " In a paroxysm," says  he, " which per-
haps  was as  severe  as I  had  ever  experienced;
the difficulty of breathing extreme, and  after it
had continued for a considerable  time, I took a ta-
ble spoonful.   In three or four minutes my breath-
ing  was as free as it ever  was, but I felt no nau-
sea at the stomach.   In ten minutes I took anoth-
er spoonful,  which occasioned  sickness.   After
ten minutes I took a third, which produced sensi-
ble effects upon the coats of the stomach, and a 
                INDIAN TOBACCO.            183
 very little moderate puking, and a kind of prickly
 sensation  through the whole system, even to the
 extremities  of  the fingers and  toes.   But  all
 these sensations very soon  subsided, and a vigour
 seemed to be restored to the constitution, which I
 had not experienced for years.   I have not since
 had a paroxysm, and only a few times some small
 symptoms of asthma.   Besides  the violent  at-
 tacks, I had scarcely passed a night without more
 or less of it, and often so as  not to be able to lie in
bed.  Since  that  time I have enjoyed as good
 health, as perhaps before the first attack."
    Dr.  Cutler considers  his  disease to be what
 Dr. Bree in his " Practical inquiries on disorder-
ed respiration" calls the first species, " an asthma
from pulmonic irritation of effused serum."
   Dr. Randall informs me, that  he  has given the
Lobelia to  many persons of different ages suffer-
ing from asthma and catarrh, and with considera-
ble variation in the form and degree  of the dose.
In asthma he finds it as successful as any article
he has tried.  When  given in doses of a drachm
of the saturated tincture, and two or three  times
repeated at convenient intervals ;  also in the form
of other preparations  of similar  strength, he has
found it usually to remove the  paroxysm in a
short time, and to restore the   patient  to qui-
              24 
184           LOBELIA INFLATA.
etude  and ease.    In  catarrh,  when  given in
small  doses and  frequently repeated,  it  has op-
erated as a  sure nnd  speedy expectorant,  pro-
ducing effects in their most important character,
very  similar to  those  of  antimony and  squills.
Dr. Randall has not observed  any  narcotic effect
to ensue  from moderate doses, nor found it to pro-
duce irritation of the coats  of the bladder, as has
been  suggested by some practitioners.   In his
hands it has not  produced any more unpleasant
consequence than frequent nausea, and occasional
emesis, with a copious flow from the glands of the
mouth.
    Dr. Bradstreet of Newburyport acquaints me,
that besides asthmatic cases, he has given  the sat-
urated tincture in two or three instances  of  dys-
pepsia, also in some cases of a rheumatic  nature
with beneficial consequences.
    He considers its sensible effects to be very
like those of common tobacco, but its medicinal
action  more speedy and diffusible,  and of  shorter
duration.  He tliinks that it affects  those  accus-
tomed to the  use  of tobacco as readily as others.
    The Lobelia has been recommended as a rem-
edy in hooping cough and croup.   In the former
of these  complaints, I can say nothing of  its use
from  experience,  but in the  latter disease I am 
                 INDIAN TOBACCO.            185
persuaded, it  affords no  benefit, having seen it
largely tried by different practitioners in a number
of fatal cases,  where it only produced a distress-
ing nausea, without, in any degree, facilitating the
respiration, or relieving the disease.
   The active properties of the Lobelia are readi-
ly extracted both by water and alcohol.   The tinc-
ture  however is most easily kept, and is the most
convenient form for exhibition.   The Essex dis-
trict medical society  have recommended a formu-
la for this  composition, which directs two  ounces
of the  dried plant to be digested in a pint of di-
luted alcohol.   Of this tincture, a teaspoonful giv-
en to an adult, will generally  produce nausea, and
sometimes vomiting.   In  certain instances  how-
ever, much larger doses have been given, without
producing any other  effect  than a flow of saliva.


            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Lobelia inflata, Lin. Sp. pi.—Act. Upsal. 1741, p. 23, t. 1.—
Gronovius,  Virg. 134.—Willd.  Sp. pi. i. 946.—Michaux, ii.
142.—Pursh, ii. 448.

             MEDICAL REFERENCES.
   Cutler, Mem. Amer. Acad.'x. 484—Schcepf, 128.—Bart.
Col. 36,  56.—Thacher, Disp.  267.—Massachusetts Reports,
vol. vi. 
186
LOBELIA INFLATA.
                   PLATE XIX.
Fig. 1. Lobelia inflata.
Fig. 2. Corolla with the stamens projecting from the cleft in the
        upper side.
B'ig. 3.  Capsule cut across. 
 
ri ^o:

2       (
'<>//<//,<,(>     f>r/> 
SOLIDAGO ODORA.
           Sweet scented Golden rod.

                   PLATE XX.
   !S o part of vegetation in the United States is
so conspicuous and gaudy in the autumnal months,
and at the same time furnishes to the botanist so
difficult a task of discrimination, as  the multitu-
dinous and  Protean genera Solidago  and  Aster.
Each of these genera contains many well defined
species,  sufficiently  marked   by their external
chai'acters, sensible qualities, habits and places of
growth.  But between them, is a great multitude
of subspecies,  liable to variation from external
circumstances, changing tlieir appearance  with
their places of growth, and  running  together by
so many points of resemblance, that it is a labour
yet remaining  for  botanists  to separate   those
species which are in nature distinct, from  those
which are varieties only. 
188            SOLIDAGO ODORA.
    The genus Solidago  is characterized by a na-
ked receptacle, the down simple, rays of the corolla
about five, scales of the calyx imbricated and close.
It is a very natural genus, easily distinguished  at
sight by its crowded  tufts of compound flowers,
which  are almost always  of a deep golden yellow.*
    The species odora has its stem nearly smooth,
leaves  linear-lanceolate, entire,  smooth,  with  a
rough  margin,  and  covered with pellucid dots*
Bacemes panicled, one sided.
    Cbiss Syngenesia,—Order Superflua,—Natural
orders  Compositor, Lm.  Corymb if eras, Juss.
    The sweet scented Golden rod grows in woods
and fields throughout the United States, and flow-
ers in  September.  It has a smooth appearance,
and is  among the smaller species of its  family.
The root is woody, much branched and  creeping.
Stem slender, from two to three feet high, smooth
or  slightly pubescent below, pubescent at  top.
The leaves are linear-lanceolate, closely  sessile,
broad at base, entire, acute, with  only  the midrib
distinct,  rough  at  the  margin but  otherwise
smooth, and covered with pellucid dots, like  Hy-
pericum perforatum.   The flowers grow in a com-
pound, panicled raceme, with each of its branches
   * The only exception which I now recollect is Solidago bicolor,
whose ray is white. 
          SWEET SCENTED GOLDEN ROD.      189
supported by a small  leaf.   These branches  or
peduncles are very slender and rigid, each giving
off a row of ascending, downy pedicels, with small,
linear bractes at  their bases.   Scales of the calyx
oblong, acute, smooth, or slightly pubescent, the
lower ones  shorter and closely  imbricating  the
rest.  Florets of the ray few, with oblong, obtuse,
ligules.   Those of the disc funnel shaped, with
acute segments.   Down  simple to the naked eye,
feathery under the microscope.  Seeds oblong.
    This plant is the Solidago odora  of  Muhlen-
berg, and agrees  with the character of  Aiton.
The Solidago  odora of Michaux is possibly a differ-
ent species.  Willdenow's plant was undoubtedly
different.   The folia puncticulosa,  which  consti-
tutes so distinct  a mark in  this species, I have
not seen noticed by any botanist.
   The leaves of the Solidao*o odora have a delight-
fully fragrant odour, partaking of that of anise and
sassafras,  but  different  from cither.   When sub-
jected to distillation, a volatile oil, possessing  the
taste and  aroma of the plant in a high degree, col-
lects in the receiver.   This oil apparently has its
residence in the  transparent  cells,  which  consti-
tute the dotting of the leaves, for the root is whol-
ly destitute of the peculiar fragrance of the herb,
and has rather a nauseous taste.   Tins  is contra- 
190            SOLIDAGO ODORA.
ry to the remark of Willdenow, who informs us that
the root is the fragrant part possessing the scent
of Geum urbanum.
   As the volatile oil appears to possess  all the
medicinal value of this plant, I have not prosecut-
ed its chemical investigation any farther.
   The claims of the Solidago to stand as an ar-
ticle of the Materia  Medica are of a humble, but
not despicable  kind.  We  import and consume
many foreign drugs  which possess  no virtue be-
yond that of being aromatic, pleasant to the taste,
gently stimulant,  diaphoretic  and carminative.
All these properties the Golden rod seems fully to
possess.  An essence made by dissolving the es-
sential oil in proof spirit, is used in the eastern
states as a remedy in complaints, arising from flat-
ulence, and as  a vehicle for unpleasant medicines
of various  kinds.  I have  employed it  to  allay
vomiting, and to relieve  spasmodic  pains in the
stomach of the milder kind, with satisfactory suc-
cess.   From its pleasant flavour, it serves  to cover
the taste of laudanum, castor oil, and  other  med-
icines, whose disagreeable  taste causes them to
be rejected by  delicate and irritable  stomachs.
    Mr. Pursh  informs  us,  that this  plant when
dried, is used in some parts of the United States as
an agreeable substitute for tea.   He further states. 
                    GOLDEN ROD.               191
that it has for  some time been an  article  of ex-
portation to China,  where it fetches a high price.


            BOTANICAL REFERENCES.
   Solidago odora, Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 214.—Pursh, ii. 539.
—Virga Aurca Americana, Tarraconis  facie et sapore, panicu-
Ia speciosissima ?  Plukenet, Aim. 389, t. 116,/. 6.


                    PLATE XX.
   Fig. 1.  Solida odora.
   Fig. 2.  A flower magnified.
   Fig. 3.  A floret of the ray.
   Fig. 4.  Afloretofthe disc.

                                                   r
                  25 
NOTES.
                          Note A.
    JVIost Eui'opean writers seem to consider the Datura stra-
 monium as a native of America.  In  Miller's Dictionary by
 Martyn, the editor says, " That it is a native of America, wc
 have  the  most undoubted proofs, for in earth brought with
 plants from various parts of that extensive country, we are sure
 to  have the Thorn apple come up.  Kalm says, that it grows
 about all the villages, and  that this  and the Phytolacca are the
 worst weeds there.   Our old writers call it Thorny Apples  of
 Peru."
    This evidence however is by no means sufficient.   The plant
 appears in  earth and ballast, carried from either continent alike.
 The name  Apple of Peru has also been applied to Datura metel,
 a plant of Africa and the East Indies.

                         Note B.
    In the Catalogue of plants in the Botanic garden at Calcutta,
published in 1814, a species is inserted by the name  of  Datura
Tatula, said to be a native of the Cape of Good  Hope.  This  is
probably different from the Datura Tatula of Linnajus.

                         Note C.
   « The Jamestown weed, (which resembles the thorny apples of
Peru, and I take it to be the plant so called,) is supposed to be
one of the greatest coolers in the world.  This being an early
plant, was  gathered very  young for a boiled sallad, by some of
the soldiers sent  thither to quell the  rebellion  of Bacon ,• and
some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was  a very 
NOTES.
193
pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several
days.  One would blow up a feather in the air, another would
dart straws at it with much fury; another stark naked was sit-
ting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning, and making mows
at them; a fourth would fondly  kiss and  paw his companions,
and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic, than any
in a Dutch  droll.  In this  frantic condition they were confined,
lest, in their folly, they should destroy themselves.   A thousand
simple tricks  they played,  and after  eleven days returned  to
themselves  again, not remembering any thing that had passed."
                         Beverly9s History of Virginia, p. 121.

                         Note B.
    " De Cuechyliztomatl, seu Tomatl  sonalis.
    Genus est  Solani  Tonchichi  forma et  viribus simile, sed
foliis paulisper undulatis, et fructu acinoso racematimque depen-
dente, &c."  Hernandex, ii. 12.

                          Note E.
    " I am  heartily glad to hear more instances of the success  of
the Poke weed in the cure of cancer.  You will deserve highly of
mankind for the communication.  But I find in Boston they are
at a loss to know the right plant, some asserting it is what they
call Mechoacan, others other things.   In  one of their late pa-
pers it is publicly requested that a perfect decription may be giv-
en of the plant, its places of growth, &c.   I have mislaid the pa-
per, or would send it to you.  I  thought  you had  described it
pretty fully."  Letter from Dr. Franklin to Dr. Colden.
    " 1 apprehend  that  our poke-weed is what botanists term
Phytolacca.  This plant bears berries as large as peas.   The
skin is black,  but it contains a crimson juice.  It is  this juice
thickened by  evaporation in the sun which  was  employed.  It
caused  great  pain, but some persons  were  said to have been
cured.  I am  not quite  certain of the facts; all that I know is 
19^                     NOTES.
 that Dr.  Colden had a good  opinion  of the remedy."  Letter
 from Dr. Franklin to M. Dubourg.

                           Note F.
     Linnseus, in his Flora Laponica, tells us that the roots of
 Calla palusiris, although acrid and caustic in the highest degree,
 (ignis firme instar,J are made into a kind of bread in high esti-
 mation, called Missebrocd.  This is  performed by drying  and
 grinding the roots, afterwards boiling and macerating  them un-
 til they are deprived of acrimony, when they are baked like other
 farinaceous substances into bread.
    The recent juice of the Jatropha manihot, or Cassava tree  of
 the  West  Indies, is highly poisonous.   The deleterious princi-
 ple however resides in a volatile portion, which is dissipated by
 heat.   The remaining substance of the root is used by the  in-
 habitants for bread, as a material for a  kind of soup, and as the
 basis of a fermented liquor.

                          Note G.
   The following is Ka^mpfer's  description taken from liis Amoe-
 mtates Exotica^, p. 791. His accompanying figure resembles the
 American Rhus vernix, except,  that the end of the branch  and
 bud are larger in proportion than with us.
   " -Site, vel. Sit&dsju, i. e. Site planta, vulgo Urus seu Urus no
 ki, Arbor vernicifera legitima,  folio pinnato Juglandis, fructu
•racemoso ciceris facie.
   " Arbor paucis ramis brachiata, salicis ad altitudinem luxuri-
 ose exsurgit. Cortice donatur incano, ex  verruculis scabro, facile
 abscedente;  ligno saligneo fragillimo;   medulla  copiosa, ligno
 adnata; Surcidis longis crassis in extremitate inordinate foliosis.
 Folium est impariter pennatum, spithamale vel longius, Juglandis
 folio »mulum, costa tereti, leviter lanuginosa; quam a semipal-
 mari nuditate stipant lobi sive folia simplicia, pediculo perbrevi
 nixa, tenuia, plana, ovata, trium vel quatuor unciarum  longitu- 
NOTES.
195
 dinis, basi insequaliter rotunda, mucrone brevi angusto, margine
 integro, suprema facie obscure viridi, lsevi, et ex nervis lacunosa,
 dorso incano et molliter lanuginoso.   Nervus medius  in  mucro-
 nem terminans subinde multos a latere demittit nervos minores,
 eitra marginem deficientes.   Sapor  folio sylvestris  inest, cum
 sensibili calore; humor  affrictus  extemplo chartam ferrugineo
 colore  imbuit.   In surculis quibusdam ex foliorum axillis sin-
 guli surgunt Racemi laxe ramosi, palmares, tenues, qui, petiolis
 in calyculos rotundos desincntibus, Flosculos  continent pumilos,
 et citra Coriandri seminis magnitudincm radiantes,  in luteum
 herbaceos,  pentapetalos, petalis carnosis nonnihil oblongis et
 repandis;  staminibus ad petalorum interstitia singulis, apicatis,
 brevissimis, stylo  perbrevi tricipite, floris  turbini  insidente.
 Ordorem spirant dulcem, Aurantio flori affinem  et pergratum.
 Fructus flosculum excipit gibbosus, utcumque in rhomboidis figu-
 ram compressus, bifidus,  facie ac magnitudine  ciceris, mcm-
 branula tenui micante vestitus, per maturitatem  durissimus ct
 obsoleti coloris.
  " Cortex  arboris cultro crenatus  lacteum fundit lentorem,
 huraore crystallino (ex aliis  ductibus  stillante) permixtum, qui
 ad aeris contactum nigrescit.   Eundem surculi divulsi, foliorum
 pediculi, et nervi produnt, nullius gustabilis qualitatis partici-
 pem, nisi califacientis sine acredine.   Venenatos  tamen spiritus
 hsec arbor  exhalare dicitur, vehementes  adeo, ut  pueris circa
 eandem commorantibus exanthemata in corpore pariaut: qualia
 etiam lignum tractantes alii (non omnes) cxpeiiuntur.  Collectio
 Urusj, sive Vernicis, ut  instituatur, caudiccs  prsecipue triennes,
 paucis crcnis vulnerand« sunt, ex quibus stillans  liquor subinde
 excipitur, itcrata in recente loco sectione, donee exsucci marces-
 cant.  Einulsi  atquc omni succo orbati, illico amputandi sunt;
sic nova e radice provenit soboles, qiue, triennis facta, collectioni
denuo subjicitur."    *     *     *
  » Vernix nativavix prseparationc indiget.  Japonica per dupli-
 ratam chartam  subtilissimam,  tela? arancarum pene similcm. ct 
196
NOTES.
earn in rem singulariter  constructam docta  ty%tte.nri  torqueri
solet, ut a particulis heterogeneis  et  crassioribus mundetur;
mundata? pauxillum admiscetur (centissima fere pars) olei Toi
dicti ex fructu arboris Kiri.  Sic vasibus ligneis indita per Japo-
niam venalis transvehitur."

                         Note H.
  The following account  of the death of Socrates  is translated
from the Phcedon of Plato.
  And Crito hearing this gave the sign to the boy who stood
near.   And the boy departing after some time returned bringing
with him the man,  who  was to administer  the  poison,  who
brought it ready bruised in a cup.  And Socrates beholding the
man, said, " Good friend, come hither, you are experienced  in
these affairs,—What is to be  done ?"  " Nothing," replied the
man, " only when you have drank the  poison, you are to walk
about until a heaviness takes place in your legs.  Then lie down.
This is all you have to do." At the same time he presented him
the cup.   Socrates  received it  from him with great  calmness,
without fear or change of countenance, and regarding the man
with his usual stern  aspect, he  asked, " What  say you of this
potion ?   Is it lawful to sprinkle any portion of it on the earth
as a libation, or not V " We only  bruise," said the man,  » as
much as is barely sufficient for the  purpose."   " I understand
you," said Socrates, " but it is certainly lawful and proper to
pray the gods that my departure from hence may be prosperous
and happy, which I indeed beseech them to grant."  So saying,
he carried the cup to his mouth and drank it with great prompt-
ness and facility.
  Thus far most  of us had been able to refrain from weeping.
But when we saw that he was drinking and actually had drunk
the poison, we could no longer restrain our tears.  And from me
they broke forth with such violence, that  I covered my face and
deplored my wretchedness. I did not weep for his fate, so much, 
NOTES.
197
as for the loss of  a friend and benefactor, which I was about to
sustain.   But Crito unable to restrain his tears was compelled
to rise.   And Apollodorus, who had been incessantly weeping,
now broke forth into loud lamentations, which infected all who
were present except Socrates.  But, he observing us, exclaimed,
" What is it you do, my excellent friends ? I have sent away the
women that they might not betray such weakness. I have heard
that it is our duty to die cheerfully and with expressions of joy
and praise.   Be silent therefore, and let your fortitude be seen."
At this address we blushed and suppressed our tears.  But So-
crates, after walking about, now told us that his legs were begin-
ning to grow heavy, and immediately laid down, for so he had
been ordered.  At the  same time the man who had given him
the poison, examined his feet and  legs, touching them at inter-
vals.  At length  he pressed violently upon his foot, and asked
if he  felt it.   To  which Socrates replied,  that he  did not.
The man then pressed his legs and so on, shewing us that he
was becoming cold and  stiff.   And Socrates feeling of himself
assured us, that when the effects had ascended to his  heart he
should then be gone.  And now the middle of his body  growing
cold,  he threw aside his clothes and  spoke for the last time,
« Crito,  we owe the sacrifice of a cock to  ^Esculapius.  Dis-
charge this and neglect  it not,"  " It shall be  done, said  Crito 5
have you any thing else to say ?"  He  made no reply, but a mo-
ment after moved, and his eyes became fixed.  And Crito seeing
this, closed his eyelids and mouth. 
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
Datura stramonium,	Thorn apple, page 17	
Eupatorium perfoliatum,	Thorough wort,	33
Phytolacca decandra,	Poke,	39
Arum triphyllum,	Dragon root,	52
Coptis trifolia,	Gold thread,	60
Arbutus uva ursi,	Bearberry,	66
Sanguinaria canadensis.	Blood root,	75
Geranium macidatum,	Cranesbill,	84
Triosteum peifoliatum,	Fever root,	90
Rhux vernix,	Poison sumach,	96
Conium maculatum,	Hemlock,	113
Cicuta macidata,	American hemlock,	125
Kalmia latifolia,	Mountain laurel,	133
Spigelia marilandica,	Carolina pinkroot,	142
Asarum canadense,	Wild Ginger,	149
Iris versicolor,	Blue flag,	155
Hyoscyamus niger,	Henbane,	161
Solanum dulcamara,	Bitter sweet,	169
Lobelia inflata,	Indian tobacco,	177
Solidago odora,	Sweet scented Golden rod,	187
Notes,		192
 
 
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