te HOIITUS JAMAICE'NSIS. oil 



species; but every body in Jamaica call? it agnus castus, or oil -leaves, whiuh they put 

 tQ.their blisters instead of jneHlot, and use no other. >The root, decocted and drank, 

 cures the cholic and swelling of the belly and legs ; and so doth the leaves, boiled with 

 v. iid ginger and ground-ivy, and then fermented with a little sugar or melasses, which 

 wall p urge very strongly. Planters have not .only cured dropsies in negroes with this 

 drink, but also the > aws and venereal complaints;, taking away the gumipous nodes, 

 and pains in the joints. The leaves, applied to the head in fevers, remove pain; a, 

 cataplasm made of the green leas _s, cassada Hour, and a little oil of the nuts, applied 

 to women's breasts, softens and discusses the coagulated milk and hardness; and, if 

 -not to be discussed, it will ripen it, bring it to digestion, and break it. 



Negroes are troubled with a distemper in their legs, which they call a guinea-worm : 

 The tir^t appearance is a bard swelling, with much pain and inflammation; and some 

 time after .will appear, through the flesh and skin, the head of the worm, as small as a 

 knitting-nee"dle, which they take hold off, and draw it a little, and get it round the 

 quilly part of a small leather; but if they draw it so haul as to break it, many ill acci- 

 dents will attend the pa.-r, and sometimes gangrenes ensue. Now, to ripen and for- 

 ward tin: work, make a poultice as before directed, and lay over it one of the leaves, 

 which "ill soften and bring the worm out, by turning the feather every day, drawing 

 a little at a time, and by degrees the worm uill entirely come out, which sometimes 

 will be several yards long, and not bigger than a thread; sometimes, barely anointing 

 the part with the oil, and laying a leaf upon it, will do. The oil of this nut pur< 

 strongly ; and I knew one, that would boldly give an ounce or an ounce and an half, in 

 vhat they tab the d.-v bedy-ache, which would go through the patient when nothing 

 else would ; outwardly, it is good for cold aches and pains, or cramps and contractions. 

 Its oil will keep without being fetid or stinking, and therefore may be converted to 

 several uses. Bui ham, p. 120. 



In Mr. Anthony Robin ion's manuscript the following recipes are recommended : 

 For di-:/ belly-ache. " Take nut-oil, half a common spoonful, and a spoonful of 

 rum, mix them together, and set the rum on fire ; after burning for half a minute, ex- 

 tinguish the flame, ;<nd mix well with a spoon for one dose, to be taken every two hours 

 until it operates. 1 have seen this, adds Mr. 11. tried with success on a patient with ail 

 the symptoms of appic aching belly-ache. The first dose gave him one stool, and the 

 second gave him thirteen, which were sufficiently liquid, and tools, away the pain of the 

 bowels entirely." 



Far the yaws. " Take eight ounces of the nuts with the green skin ; bruise them 

 small, and infuse. in twenty ounces of warm water all night, then add four ounces of 

 rum. The dose is four spoonfuls inrthe morning, in yaws, ulcers, dropsy, &c." Of 

 this medicine the late Dr M 'Vicar Affleck says he made two trials, in the yaws, and 

 ne dose, in each case, made a cure, but t'.ie operation was so violent he did not ex- 

 pect his patients would have survived it, which prevented him from making further 

 trial. It has been observed, he says, by some gentlemen who used it with great suc- 

 cess, that two spoonfuls of beef brine was effectual in stopping the operation, when 

 too violent, and that laudanum or opiates of any kind have no effect ; it was likewise 

 found that one dose often effected a cure, but three times repeated always succeeded. 

 In the cases of Dr. Aflleck's'patients, the beef bri.ie was useti, the negroes both reco- 

 vered, and never had a return of the yaws. He thought an emulsion might succeed 

 better, ami to begin with small doses. He adds that in a dysentery, rfter the measles, 



l*e 



