246 Asclepias tuberosa. 
that the decoction “ often induces perspiration when other medicines 
have failed to produce this effect,» and on the authority of a cor- 
-respondent*, that in the low states of typhus fever, it induced per- 
spiration when other sudorifics failed. In a letter which I have re- 
ceived from a physician in Wrightstown, + it appears, that the As- 
clepias tuberosa is in frequent use by the regular practitioners, . as 
a gentle cathartic in difficult dentition, and as a diaphoretic. To 
produce the latter effect the writer of the letter gives the follow- 
ing as a proper recipe: 
Rad. asclep. 3ii 
Lac recens ait 
boiled down to 3xii. One ounce of the decoction to be given twice. 
or thrice in twenty-four hours, which excites a copious perspira- 
tion, and proves at the same time gently cathartic. 
It may be said with truth, that the Asclepias tuberosa is a cer- 
_ tain, and of course an useful diaphoretic ; whether it acts in this 
way, as it is said to do, without increasing the force of the circula- 
tion or augmenting the heat of the body, I am not prepared by any 
~ extensive use of the plant, to aver; at the same time it must be 
confessed, that in the few instances in which my employment of 
this medicine has presented to me a view of its effects, the plant has 
* Dr. Charles Everett, of Milton. 
t Stephen Burson, M. D. 
