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Similar obfervations have been made^ of Veratriim by aiitbors of 



Mayerne^gave from two to three grains of an extract of 



this root with confiderable advantage in maniacal cafes, wh 

 remarkable evacuation took place ; and Con. Gefner,™ Avho invefti- 

 gated the quahties of Veratrum by repeated experiments, and whofe 



ms on its efficacy feemed for a while to reftore it to the 



ancient charader of Hellebore, exprefsly declares, that he did not 

 give it as an evacuant, but to produce the more gradual efFeds of thofe 

 medicines termed alteratives. " Gefner's account of Veratrum w^s 



followed by thofe of feveral other authors," in which it is faid to have- 

 been ferviceable in various chronic difeafes. But the fulleft trial which 



feems to have been lately made of the efficacy of Veratrum is by 

 Greding,Vho employed it in a great number of cafes, (twenty-eight) 



of the maniacal and melancholic kind j the majority of thefe as 

 might be expeded, derived no permanent benefit ; feveral however 

 were relieved,^ and five completely cured by this medicine. It was 

 the bark- of the root, colkaed in the fpring, w hich he gave ia 

 powder, beginning with one grain : this dofe was gradually increafed' 

 according to its effeds. With fome patients one or two grains excited 

 naufea and vomiting, but generally eight grains v/ere required to pro- 

 duce this effed, though in a few inftances a fcruple, and even more,, 

 was given. We may alfo remark, that he fometimes ufed the extrxid* 

 prepared after Stoerck's manner.— In almofl every cafe which he 



relates, the. medicine aded. more', or lefs upon all the excretions :, 



J 



Med. Lib. i. c. J. p. 6g. Jq 



"■ He fays,, <t- non ad purgandum^ fed ad referandos meatus k crafTos humores attenu- 

 andum eolque a centre & interiorlbus corporis ad fupcrHciem & vias excretlonum varf- 

 arum educenduoi." Adding, " recreat & robera^ & hilariorem facit, & acuit ingenium : 

 <3iJ0d 111 me & aJiis fep'^- ..-r^.-i,, tt i ^ ^ ,. , , .f . . . 



Had G 



oZT'a- '^ ^f •''" '^'' ^"''•^'^- " ^S°> ^' ^^^^'•^^ i" E^ebori hiftoria'multa proferam,, 

 quae medici admirentur." /. c. ^- ■ '' 



Hannemann, ^uerceianus, Screta^ Wepfery MuraltOy. L'lnder. 



Vermifchte Med. 



781. to *, 3 



rempr/f ^1'^^^ ^ ''^^^?^ "'^"'^' brought on by taking pepper and fpirits of wme as a; 

 been r \ I ""^^ ' "^ '^'^^''^^ continued thirty-three weeks, when it was faid to have 

 wh o.K ^' ^ '^'°" ""^ ^^^^« h^"^b«r^ 5 ^ut as copious and repeated bleedino-s. 

 See aIL^'/vI' T'? ^'"P'^oyedi'the cure cannot wholly be afcribed to the hellebore 

 ^ee Agafliz. DtjJ. de tUrapia mania,. ErL 1785. /. 37. 



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