90° ARISTOLOCHIA SERPENTARIA. 
more particularly in bilious cases. It is given 
for this purpose in decoction, in the small dose 
of half an ounce or less at a time, and frequently 
repeated. 
The most common form of exhibiting snake- 
root is in infusion, for which purpose half an 
ounce may be:steeped in a pint of boiling water 
for two hours, in‘a covered vessel. Of this in- 
fusion an ounce or two may be taken every three 
or four hours. Decoction is a less proper mode 
of preparing this plant, as it tends to. dissipate 
the volatile parts, a portion of which is detained 
in a state of mixture by the infusion. | Sometimes 
the powder is given in doses of from ten to thirty 
grains. A tincture of snakeroot is made by di- 
gesting an ounce of the root in a pound or some- 
what less of proof spirit. The compound tincture 
of bark, commonly called Huxham’s tincture, 
contains Serpentaria as one of its ingredients. 
BOTANICAL REFERENCES. 
Aristolochia serpentaria, Lixn. Sp. pl—Watrer, Flor. Car, 
923.— W oopvILLE, ii. 291. ¢. 106.—Micuavx, ii. 162.—Pursn, ii. 
596.—Pistolochia sive Serpentaria Virginiana, &c.—P.iuxener, f. 
148. f. 5.—Caressy, Car. i. 29. 
