Podophyllum peltatum. 15 
and other southern Indians.”* Of this my experience affords 
neither corroboration nor refutation ; but in all probability the plant 
is destitute of any specific anthelmintic virtue ; and most likely ex- 
pels worms as calomel and many active purgatives do. The late 
Dr. Barton tells us that he had heard much of the virtue of an ex- 
tract of the root of May-apple, but had never himself used it. It is 
reputed to have been found highly useful as a cathartic in colica 
pictonum.t He seemed to think that, as a cathartic, the powder 
possessed some advantages over rhubarb and jalap; he does not 
however mention in what respect he deemed it superior or prefer- 
able. My impression, from an impartial administration of the 
powder, in repeated trials, is, that it is equal to the common jalap of 
the shops, in doses of the proportion of a scruple of the former, to 
fifteen or eighteen grains of the latter; and in this it seems indeed 
to be preferable to the jalap, that it is less nauseous to irritable sto- 
machs. Dr. Barton remarks, “that Podophyllum has been thought 
by some practitioners, to be especially adapted, as a purge, to cases 
of intermittents, remittents and dropsy ;?? and concludes by ob- 
serving, that he “believes the medicine possesses some narcotic - 
quality.”*t 
aii __* Barton’s Collections. ; 
+ Barton’s edition of Cullen’s Materia Medica, vol. 2. p. 375. 
t Ibid. 
