Panax quinquefolium. 199 
fatigue, attenuates and dissolves humours, facilitates difficult res- 
piration, invigorates the stomach and digestive organs, sharpens: 
the appetite, allays vomiting, cures hypocondriacal, nervous, and 
hysterical affections, confirms the tone of the healthy system, and re- 
novates the wasting and faded powers of senility,—in fact, that it is 
a perfect panacea. Hence, the name of Panax, given to it by Lin- 
neus, a term intended to express this catenation of important vir- 
tues.* The Chinese, besides chewing it, use it in decoction, 
in the proportion of a drachm of the root boiled a long time in a 
covered vessel, containing a sufficiency of water for a dose. They 
again add water, and boil it a second time to extract all the virtues 
of the precious drug. . 
It appears from Father Jartoux’s account,t that he himself 
_ * Among other visionary effects ascribed to it, it is not surprising that they should 
believe it to be an aphrodisiac. Writers on the Materia Medica, among whom, Cullen 
is conspicuous, deny that the root has any such effect on the system: and this 
author, in expressing his discredit of their accounts on the subject, says, he knew 
a gentleman advanced in years, who chewed a quantity of the root every day, for 
several years, but could perceive no aphrodisiac effect. Cullen, Mat, Med, 
+ « No body can imagine that the Chinese and Tartars would set so high a value 
upon this root, if it did not constantly produce a good effect.”—« I observed the state 
of my pulse, and then took half of a root rdw; in an hour after, I found my pulse much 
fuller and quicker; I had an appetite, and found myself much more vigorous, and 
could bear labour much better and easier than before. But 1 did not rely on this trial 
alone, imagining that this alteration might proceed from the rest we had that day ; 
but four days after, finding myself so fatigued and weary, that I could scarce sit on 
