Aristolochia serpentaria. “ 49 
trine, that the morbific matter of malignant fevers was analogous to 
the poison of serpents, and that its influence on the human system 
might be obviated by the same means, led to the employment of the 
snake-root in all fevers of a malignant type.* In accordance with 
those notions, this plant was considered the most powerful of the me- 
dicines termed alexipharmics, or antidotes to poisons.+ But this prac- 
tice, originating in the erroneous ideas of the old physicians, was not 
without its usefulness. The employment of snake-reot in malignant 
fevers, led to its more general use in fevers of another kind; and it 
was not long before, by the united consent of the medical world, 
this plant was acknowledged to be a powerful diaphoretic stimulant 
and tonic; and peculiarly suited, from the antiseptic virtue which it is 
generally believed to possess, to such cases of disease as required 
powerful remedies endued with such properties. The high authority 
of Lind, Huxham, Hillary, Lysons, Monro, Cullen, Rush, and others, 
is not wanting to support the claim of serpentaria to a distin- 
guished rank in the Materia Medica. It has been recommended to be 
used in combination with Peruvian bark, in intermittent and con- 
tinued fevers; and the bark has been found more efficacious when 
thus used in union with the serpentaria, than when employed alone.t 
It should be recollected, that the medical powers of this plant depend 
* Woodville Med. Bot. vol. 2. p. 292. 
, + Ibid. 
+ Woodville and Lysons’ Practical Essays upon Intermitting Fevers, p. 13, 
VOL. II. +f 
