Polygala seneka. 447 
against the bite of the rattle-snake. In an extensive intercourse with 
the Indian nations of our country, it appears that, induced by the 
offer of alluring rewards, he obtained from the Senagaroos, a disclo- 
sure of their secret remedy for this accident, or the disease arising 
in consequence of it. According to their practice, it was applied ex- 
ternally and internally, either chewed and applied to the wound, or 
in the form of cataplasm. Dr. Tennant himself saw, or thought he 
saw, beneticial effects from the root of this medicine in cases of this 
kind. He inferred from the similarity of those symptoms which su- 
pervened on the poison of the rattlesnake, to those of pleurisy, 
that the medicine would prove beneficial in that disease. He accord- 
ingly recommended it, and it has been much used, and with repeat- 
ed good effect, in peripneumonic cases. The most prominent of 
the physicians who have borne testimony in favour of its powers 
in those cases, are Bouvart, De Jussieu, Lemery, and Duhamel. Sir 
Francis Millman, Dr. Percival, and others, have spoken highly of it 
as a diuretic in dropsies. Of late years the Seneka has been much 
used in Croup, and numerous well attested instances of its beneficial 
effects are to be found in various publications. The credit of discover- 
ing the efficacy of the root in this complaint,is due to Dr. Archer,* 
of Maryland, who, confessedly, was the first person that proposed its 
use in that distressing malady. ‘The late Dr. Barton, on this subject 
says “from my own experience I am led to repose more confidence 
* See Medical Repository, New York, vol. ii. n. 1. art. vii. 
