ASARUM CANADENSE. 
of a straw or larger; the external covering is brownish, and 
wrinkled, the internal substance is white, hard, and brittle; 
occasionally the fragments of the radicles are attached. It 
comes, either in mass or in square packages, from the Shakers 
at Lebanon, New York, when it is connected with the leaves, 
and is subject to mouldiness from the partially dry state neces- 
sary to packing by pressure. Its taste is agreeably aromatic 
and slightly bitter; the smell is aromatic. It is by some sup- 
posed to be intermediate between that of ginger and serpen- 
taria, by others thought to bear a closer resemblance to that 
of cardamone. The taste of the petioles which usually ac- 
company the root, is more bitter, and less aromatic. 
The root is an aromatic, stimulant tonic, and in a warm de- 
coction is possessed of no inconsiderable diaphoretic proper- 
ties, resembling the Serpentaria in its action on the system, 
and may be advantageously used as a substitute for it, but is 
rather more stimulating. In diseases of the skin, attended 
with fever, in which the eruption is tardy, or has receded, and 
the grade of action is low, it is thought to be useful by pro- 
moting the cutaneous affection. It has also been strongly 
recommended in intermittent fevers, and though itself gen- 
erally inadequate to the cure of the complaint, often proves 
serviceable as an adjunct to Peruvian bark, With the same 
remedy it is frequently associated, and with considerable ad- 
vantage, in the treatment of typhus diseases, __ 
Asaroum, like all other articles of the same class, must vary 
its effects on the animal economy with the mode of exhibi- 
tion; thus its sudorific power will be manifested by exhibition 
in warm infusion, and in large quantities in this form it will 
frequently prove emetic; in cold infusion or tincture, it is 
cordially stimulating and tonic. 
The leaves, when dried and powdered, have powerful errhine 
properties, and make a fine stimulating cephalic snuff, which 
may be used in all disorders of the head and eyes. They 
excite irritation, and a discharge of mucus from the nasal 
membrane; and they are useful in certain affections of the 
brain, eyes, face, mouth, and throat, on the principle of coun- 
ter-irritation ; thus, in paralytic affections of the mouth and 
tongue, in toothache, and in ophthalmia. ' 
The root is used by the inhabitants of many parts of the 
country as a substitute for ginger, and for many purposes is 
fally equal to it. M. Lemery, in his Dictionnaire Universel 
des Drogues Simples, published in 1733, alludes to its substi- 
tution for this purpose by the Aborigines of America. It 
also forms the basis of a spirituous drink, which may be made 
by the infusion of the whole plant in fermenting wine or beer. 
_ The roots of the other America n species, Asarum Virci- 
nicum, and AsaruM arirouium, are similar in their proper- 
ties, though perhaps ee aromatic or powerful. _ 
