116 Polygala seneka. 
he says the whole root has commonly been used without regard to this 
difference inthe power of its different parts. Murray relates the results 
of analyses carefully made of the root of this plant, by those who have: 
written on it. But from them we learn nothing remarkable, except 
that the aqueous is more abundant than the resinous extract ; 
though the ligneous part of the root yields sufficiently, a resin, a 
mucilage, &c. : 
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES, 
The Seneka snake-root possesses various medicinal virtues. It is 
stimulant, diuretic, sialagogue, expectorant, purgative, emetic and 
sudorific ; and of late years it is esteemeda valuable emenagogue. Dr. 
Cullen has treated of it, both under the head of cathartics, and under 
that of diuretics. Dr. Barton, in his edition of Cullen, has assigned it 
a place under the head of emenagogues, and Dr. Chapman, under 
the head of stimulating diuretics, as well as under the head of expec- 
torants and emenagogues. Its purgative effect was regarded by Dr. 
Cullen as its true characteristic ; and under the opinion that it was 
most salutary, when it produced copious evacuations, he arranged it 
under the head of cathartics. From this opinion many respectable 
physicians dissent. | 
It is now more than eighty years, (1735) since Dr. John Tennant 
invited the attention of physicians to this medicine, as an antidote 
