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gation, than to point out its valuable qualities. The most direct and 

 specific account we have of its virtues, is given hy Dr. James 

 Fountain, an experienced and eminent practitioner of Peekskill,N. Y., 

 in the New York Jour mil of Medicine, vol. x. p. 208. He says, 

 "I have used the witch-hazel for more than thirty years in one 

 way or another, as a remedial agent. My attention was first called 

 to it by the country people around me, who use it for all manner of 

 hemorrhages. 



"I once met a young man going to market in his wagon, and 

 having by his side a bunch of the witch-hazel in full foliage. I 

 knew that his father and mother, and all the family, no less than 

 eight or ten in number, except himself and a younger brother, had 

 died of consumption. He, too, was pale and emaciated, and bade 

 fair soon to follow them to the tomb. He told me he dare not leave 

 home without the witch-hazel, to stop his spitting blood, for as soon 

 as this appeared, he chewed some leaves and swallowed the juice, 

 with the invariable effect of arresting it at once. He has ever since 

 continued to use the leaves or a decoction of the bark. Either of 

 these arrest the hemorrhage, and relieve the pain in the chest 

 promptly. He has since lived many years, although his health is 

 not good. But I presume he owes his life to this one article. And 

 this is only one of the many similar cases of its successful effect. It 

 does not arrest diarrhoeas or any morbid secretions, so remarkably 

 as moderate hemorrhages, especially those of the lungs, stomach, 

 and intestines. In hsematemesis, I have found it to operate like a 

 charm. It appears to be especially adapted to young and irritable 

 subjects." And he adds further, "as to its anodyne property, I 

 told Dr. Peixotto, formerly an editor of the New York Journal of 

 Medicine, .jr., many years ago, that I was convinced it possessed 

 such a principle decidedly. I was led to this conclusion from its 

 relieving pain in eases of haemoptysis; and the sudden and decided 

 relief it affords to the pain and soreness of piles." In regard to 

 this latter affection, the same writer states that, "about ten years 

 ago, a new ointment from the east, somewhere in the neighbourhood 

 of Panbury, in Connecticut, was peddled about the country, and 

 acquired great fame as an infallible cure for the piles. And in truth 

 it did succeed admirably. Its effects, as an external application, 

 were sometimes truly surprising. Accidentally the recipe for its 

 make fell into my hands, and here it is. R. — Witch-hazel bark: 

 white oak bark, inner part ; sweet apple-tree bark, of each three 

 handfuls. Water, three pints. Boil down to one pint — strain ; 



