70 
; In this country the Mezerion is principally employed for the cure 
of fome fyphilitic complaints, and in this way Dr. Donald Monro was 
the firft who gave teftimony of its efficacy in the fuccefsful ufe of the 
Xilbon diet drink." A few months after this,feveral cafes were publifhed 
by Dr. Ruffel, then phyfician to St. Thomas's Hofpital, fully eftab- 
lifhing the utility of the cortex mezerei in venereal nodes.^ He fays, 
*' the difeafe for which I principally recommend the decoaion of 
mezereon root as a cure, is the node, that proceeds from a thickening 
of t\iQ membrane of the bones, which appears to be the caufe of the 
greatefi part of thofe tumours, at leaft when recent — In a thickening 
of the periofteum from other caufes I have feen very good eiFeds from 
it." But in the nodurnal pains, accompanying fyphilis, unlefs occa- 
fioned by the node itfelf, he found it neceflary to join a folution of 
fublimate to the decodion.^ We may alfo remark, that Dr. R. n 
' found the decodion to increafe any of the natural evacuations. 
Cullen obferves, that " Dr. Home has not only found this decodion 
to cure fcirrhous tumours, which remain after the lues venerea, and 
after the ufe of mercury, but that it healed alfo fome fcirrhous 
tumours from other caufes: and that he has employed it in feveral 
V 
D 
taneous affedions, and fometimes with fuccefs." 
The confiderable and lonp* continued heat and irritation that is 
produced in the throat when Mezereon is chew^ed, induced Dr. 
Withering to think of giving it in a cafe of difficulty of fwallowing, 
feemingly occafioned by a paralytic affedion. The patient was 
direded to chew a thin (lice of the root as often as ihe could bear it, 
and in about a month recovered her power of fwallowing. ThiS 
woman had fuffered the complaint three years, and was greatly re- 
duced, being totally unable to fwallow folids, and liquids but very 
imperfedly.' 
* Eff. & obferv. phif. & lit. p. 402. vol. 3. *" Med. Obrerv. & Inquir. vol. 3. p. 189 
Dr. R. firft loined farfaparilla to the mezereon, but afterwards ufed 
/ 
.-'#. 
only : 
I^ Cort. rad. Mezerei 5 
Aq. fontan. cong. ifs 
addend, rad- glycyrrhlz. incis, ^j. dos. Ibfs quater in die 
\ 
And by this many of the patients were entirely cured without ever taking mercury 
»» M.M, vol, 2, p. 215. * 1. c. 
tt 
DIGITALIS PURPUREA. 
