* 
♦ 
^ 
\ 
^37 
bluifh or afli 
wli 
the feeds are ripe, tlie pellicle burfls, and 
of Brit 
•id 
TOWS about 
after the difcharge of the feeds the veifels become brown, and appear 
as if covered with dull. It is a nati 
the borders of woods near rivulets, ; 
The root of the male fern has h 
nd 
fFe6ts upon the tap 
> 
Tj£ 
y be 
tony 
ypl 
r 
• r 
ge p 
of fern-root feems to h 
Lii 
been kno 
a ted for 
and thi 
1 to th 
ancients 
? 
and 
1 
o 
fin 
ice 
1 
ded by different pradical writers. 
e' 
Yet notwithftandinp; the virtues o 
f 
IS 
root are 
thus 
life was 
Noufer, 
.erally negle 
furgeon's widow, in 
very 
d till 
fome 
wit 
' * 'Ob 
d 
recorded, its^ 
years ago. Madame- 
:quired great celebrity,. 
by employing a fecret remedy as a fpecific in the cure of the tap 
worm 
1 
fecret was thought of fuch importance by fome of the 
principal phyficians in P 
who were depu 
to m.ake a comple 
of its efficacy, that it was purchafed by the French king, and aft 
wards publifhed by his order.'* The method of cure has been ftated as 
follows.: After ihe patient has been prepared by an emollient clyfterjand 
a fupper of panada, with butter and fait, he is direded 
bed, a dofe of two or three drams of the p 
morning, while in 
dered root of male fern. (The dofe for infants is one dram.) 
powder muft be -waihed down with a draught of water, and two 
Tl 
f 
hours after a flrong cathartic, compofed of calomel and fcammony 
is to be given, proportioned to the ftrength of the patient. If this 
does not operate in due time, it is to be followed by a dofe of purging 
falts, and if the worm be 
be repeated at prop 
X 
pelled in a few hours, this procefs is 
k . Of the fuccefs of this, or a fimilar 
mode of treatment, in cafes of taenia, there can be no doubt, as many 
pro 
of it in this country afford fufficient teilimgn) 
? 
but whe 
the fern root or theilrong cathartic is the principal agent in the 
i86. 
DlofcorlcL M.. M. lib. 4. cap. 
Simp, M?d^ lib. 8. Pliny, lib. 28. cap. 9. 
■ , , ^ 
^ F. Hoffmariy and 
Theophraft. Hift.. Plant.Jib. 9 
Galen 
LafTonej Macquer, De La Motte, Juffieuj, Carburij and Cadet.. ' 
Precis du Traitement centre le T^enlas ou Vers folitaires, pratique a Mora 
Suiffc, examine et approve a Paries. Publie par ordre du Roi j a Paris, 
* See Dr. Simmons's « Account of the Tsnja," &c. 
75 
defirudioa 
V 
m 
