COMMON GILLENIA. 45 
flavour, with little of the bitterness. A large 
portion of resin is precipitated on the addition of 
water to an alcoholic tincture of the root. 
Under the name of Spira trifoliata, this plant 
is well known to students of the American Materia 
Medica, as an emetic. To the remarks which 
have been made by various writers, I can add my 
own testimony of its possessing properties in a 
certain degree analogous to those of ipecacuanha. 
It requires, however, a larger dose, and I have not 
been satisfied that it is at all certain in its opera- 
tion. At times I have known fifteen grains to 
produce a full operation; at others thirty grains 
have been given to a person already predisposed 
to yomit, without producing the least sensible 
effect. ; 
The best printed account which I have found 
respecting its mode of operation is contained 
in an Inaugural Dissertation, published at Phila- 
delphia in 1810, by Dr. De la Motta, then of 
Charleston, 8, C. ‘This gentleman, in addition to 
other trials, took the root himself twice in sufficient 
quantity to produce vomiting. “In order,” he 
‘says, “to ascertain this particular power of the 
Spirzea, I, early in the morning, fasting, prescribed 
for myself twenty-five grains of the powdered root 
of this plant. I divided this quantity into. four 
