Orobanche Virginiana. 37 
that in the management of cancers, the empirical practitioners have 
often succeeded so much better with their medicines than the regu- 
lar physicians have done? Both use arsenic. Some of the cancer- 
powders, employed by empirics, in Europe, are known to have been 
composed, in part, of arsenie and a vegetable matter. The cele- 
brated powder of Plumked was made up of arsenic, the root of a 
species of Ranunculus, or Crow-foot, and sulphur. 
“ Whatever may have been the vegetable which Martin used in 
combination with arsenic, it is certain, that the powder of the Oro- 
banche, or Cancer-root, has been of great service (in Philadelphia, 
&c.) externally applied to obstinate ulcers, some of which had re- 
sisted the applications that are commonly made use of in such eases, 
It would be well to try the effects of this vegetable in those dreadful 
ulcerations, by some writers deemed cancerous, which are too 
frequently the consequence of the use of mercury, when it has been 
given in large quantity. Cases of the kind I allude to, are recorded 
by Dr. Donald Monro, Mr. Adams, in a valuable work, and other 
writers. I have had occasion to see some ulcerations of the same 
kind in Philadelphia. They often refuse to yield to stimulating or 
to mild applications. 
“ With the view to encourage further enquiry into the nature and 
properties of the Orobanche Virginiana, | may here mention, that 
one of the European species of this genus, the Orobanche major, or 
