Orobanche Virginiana. Bt 
of the white oxyd of arsenic* and this vegetable base. On this subject 
the late Professor Barton has made these observations: “ The Oro- 
* Since there is so much reason to believe that the subject of this article was really 
the vegetable base of this celebrated powder, it may be useful to quote Professor 
Rush’s paper on the subject, at length. I do this the more willingly, because the 
transactions of the Philosophical Society in which it is published, are not very ac- 
cessible to most persons. 
An account of the late Dr. Hugh Martin’s Cancer Powder, with brief observations 
en cancers. By Benjamin Rush, M. D., &c. &c. ** A few years ago a certain Dr. 
Hugh Martin, a surgeon of one of the Pennsylvania regiments stationed at Fort Pitt, 
during the latter part of the late war, came to this city, and advertised to cure cancers 
with a medicine which he said he had discovered in the woods, in the neighbourhood of 
the garrison. As Dr. Martin had once been a pupil of mine, I took the liberty of wait- 
ing upon him, and asked him some questions respecting his discovery. His answers 
were calculated to make me believe, that his medicine was of a vegetable nature, and 
that it was originally an Indian remedy. He shewed me some of the medicine, which 
appeared to be the powder of a well-dried root of some kind. Anxious to see the success 
of this medicine in cancerous sores, F prevailed upon the doctor to admit me to see him 
apply it in two or three cases. TI observed in some instances, he applied a powder to 
the parts affected, and in others only touched them with a feather dipped in a liquid 
which had a white sediment, and which he made me believe was the vegetable root dif- 
fused in water. It gave me great pleasure to witness the efficacy of the doctor’s appli- 
cations. In several cancerous ulcers, the cures he performed were complete. Where 
the cancers were much connected with the lymphatic system, or accompanied with a 
scrophulous habit of body, his medicine always failed, and in some instances did evi- 
dent mischief. 
