53° 
as a med 
undoubted fpecific in fyphilitic diforders, and was alfo celebrated 
wheth 
in fome other difeafes of the chronic kind 
it was owing to a difference of 
B 
European practitioners foon found that it by 
or other 
caules 
» 
charael: 
hich it had 
means aniwered the 
quired in the Spanilh Weft Indies 
therefore it became very much negle&ed. Many phyficians however 
much efficacy 
d 
ftill coniider the Sarfaparilla to be a medicine 
though they admit that by the ufe of this root 
pect a cure of the lues venerea, yet they affert that when it is given 
we 
not to 
along with 
cury, the difeafe is much fooner fubdued 
dth 
des, and other fymptoms of this diforder, which refilled the 
effects of repeated fal 
ed ufe of Sarfap 
have afterwards difappeared by the 
In proof of this, we find feveral cafes 
related by the late Sir William Fordyce:* but it may be remarked, that 
ulcers, and other complaints, which continue after a properly con 
ducT:ed 
ourfe of mercury, are often rather 
be 
fidered as the 
veftiges of the lues than the actual difeafe, and confequently any other 
medicine pofTefhng no antivenereal power, but improving the general 
habit of body, might be employed with equal fuccefs. Admitting this, 
however, is 
denying the utility of Sarfap 
which has been 
decidedly done by a late ingenious profefTor/ It is in frequent ufe at 
moil of the London hofpitals, and we have known patients, after the 
ufe of mercury, much fooner reftored to health by this 
than 
opinion could have been accomplifhed by any other medicine with 
which we are acquainted, efpecially when employed in powder. 
This root is alfo recommended in rheumatic arFecl: 
fcroph 
and cutaneous complaints, or where an acrimony of the fluids prevail 
It may be given in decoction or powder, and mould be eont 
nued 
hir 
dofes for a confiderable time 
* L. 
Co. 
f Dr». Cullen*. 
VINIFERA 
.9 
