146 SPIGELIA MARILANDICA. 
most active when recently dried, and that its 
eflicacy was always impaired by keeping more 
than six months. Dr. Garden had previously 
made observations somewhat similar. If this be 
the case, we may account for its failures in the 
hands of those who obtain it at a distance when 
half a dozen years old. 
_ Drs. Lining, Garden, and Chalmers of Caroli- 
na, are the writers who first introduced the Spi- 
_gelia to notice, and who have spoken most une- 
quivocally in its praise. Each of these physi- 
cians has represented it as an anthelmintic of 
superior efficacy. It appears that under certain 
cireumstances, itis capable of operating as a ca- 
thartic, and that in these instanees, the most ad- 
vantage has been experienced from it. Dr. Gar- 
den says, that he had given it in hundreds of 
cases, and that he “never found it do much good 
except when it proved gently purgatiye.” As the 
action of the Spigelia upon the bowels is quite 
uncertain, most practitioners either unite, or fol- 
low it with calomel or some purgative medicine. 
We are told that the pink root, when in its 
most active state, if given in large quantities, indu- 
ces narcotic symptoms, such as stupor, headach, 
dilated pupil, ec. Dr. H. Thompson, who took 
Jarge doses of the root to try its effect on himself, 
