144 PRINOS VERTICILLATUS. 
deserves. The late Professor Barton tells us, 
that the bark has long been a popular remedy in 
different parts of the United States, being used in 
intermittents and some other diseases as a sub- 
stitute for the Peruvian bark; and on some 
occasions, he thinks it more useful than that 
article. “It is employed both in substance and 
in decoction, most commonly, however, in the 
latter shape. It is supposed to be especially 
useful in cases of great debility accompanied with 
fever ; as a corroborant in anasarcous and other 
dropsies, and as a tonic in cases of incipient 
sphacelus or gangrene. In the last case,” he 
says, “it is unquestionably a medicine of great 
efficacy. Itis both given internally and employed 
externally as a wash.” 
Dr. Thacher recommends a decoction or in- 
fusion of the bark taken internally in doses of a 
teacupful, and employed also as a wash, for the 
cure of cutaneous eruptions, particularly of the 
herpetic kind. | | 
I have had but little experience with the 
bark of the Prinos which gave me much satis- 
faction. Indeed the tests of tonic remedies are 
of a» more ambiguous kind than those of. most 
other medicines. Vegetable barks, which are 
bitter and astringent, are generally tonic, if they 
