IPECACUANHA SPURGE. 413 
doses of two scruples and upwards. The plant 
appears to differ from the South American Ipe- 
cacuanha in having the degree of its operation 
proportionate to the quantity taken ; the process 
of yomiting not being checked by the powder 
being thrown off of the stomach, as frequently 
happens, when common Ipecac is given in large 
doses. | 
_ At my request, Dr. James McKeen made this 
plant and another species, E. corollata, the sub- 
jects of an inaugural dissertation at Harvard 
University, in 1520. As his observations haye 
been made with some care, and illustrate very 
fairly the action of the medicine, I insert the 
principal cases from his manuscript. 
& Case I. The first experiment,” he observes, 
~made with this species of the Euphorbia was 
upon a man of intemperate habits, about twenty 
seven years of age, and who appeared to be a 
candidate for Delirium Tremens. I gave him 
ten grains. He told me that it always required 
powerful doses of medicine to produce any effects 
upon his stomach or bowels, but as I was then a 
stranger to the powers of the Euphorbia i ipecacu- 
anha, it was thought prudent not to hazard a 
large quantity until something had been ascer- 
tained. of its strength. When r called in the 
