47° 
are indebted to the liberality of Sir Jofeph Banks, in whofe herbarium 
we found an excellent fpecimen of the plant. 
The fharp hairs of the pod readily penetrate the fkin, and caufe a 
very troublefome itching, a mifchievous purpofe to which in this 
country they have been long chiefly converted. But the violent 
irritation which thefe hairs produce upon the external fkin has not 
deterred practitioners from adminiftering them internally, efpecially 
In tli 
w-^ 
Ci 
Indies, where they have been 
generally employed for 
many years as a fafe and efficacious anthelmintic; and with a view 
to tliis effect they are now admitted into the Materia Medica of the 
Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. 
/ 
Sir Hans Sloane, who has noticed the diuretic qualities of the roots 
obferves, that an infuiion of the latter " is a 
and pods of this plant, 
u 
certain remedy for the dropfie ;" b but he takes no notice of the 
vermifuge effe&s of Cowhage : Browne however has informed us, 
that " in the Windward Iilands fome of the inhabitants make a fyrup 
" of the pods, which is faid to be very effectual againft worms." But as 
little attention would be paid to an obfervation fo vague and unfatis- 
faclory as this, we are to confider Mr- Bancroft as the firft perfon whofe 
writings tended to eftablifh the anthelmintic character of Cowhage in 
Europe. He tells us, " the part ufed is the fetacious hairy fubftance 
growing on the outfide of the pod, which is fcraped off, and mixed 
with common fyrup or molalTes, to the confidence of a thin elec- 
tuary, of which a tea-fpoonful to a child of two or three years 
old, and double the quantity to an adult, is given in the morning 
falling, and repeated the two fucceeding mornings ; after which a 
dofe of rhubarb is ufually fubjoined. This is the empyrical 
practice of the planters, who ufually once in three or four months 
exhibit the Cow-itch in this manner to their flaves in general, but 
efpecially to all their children without diftin&ion ; and in this 
manner I have feen it given to hundreds from one year old and 
upwards with the moft happy fuccefs. The patients, after the 
fecond dofe, ufually difcharged an incredible number of worms, 
even to the amount of more than twenty at a time, fo that the 
■ 
b He alfo informs, that this remedy was fuccefsfully ufed in the Eaft Indies by Mr. 
4 
< 
4 
C 
C 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
Buckley 
L. c. 
44 
flools 
