RADIX SENEG/E. 77 



1 



founded together as H, inebrians Vahl) afford a fatty oil which the 

 natives use in cutaneous diseases.^ 



POLYGALE^. 



RADIX SENEGiE. 



Badix SenekcB; Senega or Seneha Root; F. Racine de PolygaJa de 



Virginie; G. SenegawnrzeL 



Botanical Origin — Polygala Senega L., a perennial plant with 

 slender ascending stems 6 to 12 inches high, and spikes of dull white 



Milk 



It is found in British America as far north as tlie river Saskatchewan, 



United 



Tennessee, Virginia and the .upper parts of Nprth Carolina, as well as 

 in Georgia and Texas, not in the Rocky Mountains. 



The plant, which frequents rocky open woods and plains, has heconie 

 somewhat scarce in the Atlantic states, and as a drug is now chiefly 

 collected in the west, the plant growing profusely in Iowa and Min- 

 nesota, west of New York, 



History-^The employment of this root among the Seneca Indians 

 as a remedy for the bite of the rattle-snake attracted the notice of 

 lennent, a Scotch physician in Virginia; and from the good effects he 

 witnessed he concluded that it might be administered with advantage 

 in pleurisy and peripneumonia. The result of numerous trials made in 

 the years 1734! and 1735 proved the utility of the drug in these com- 

 plaints, and Tennent communicated his observations to the celebrated 



^V • of London in the form of an epistle, afterwards published to- 

 gether with an engraving of the plant, then called the Seneca Rattle- 

 ^nake Hoot} Tennent's practice was to administer the root in 

 powder or as a strong decoction, or more often infused in wine. The 



Gw drug was favourably received in Europe, and its virtues discussed 



n numerous theses and dissertations, one written in 1749 beincr by 

 i^innaeus.3 "^ •^ 



1 7^^^^i"iption — Senega root is developed at its upper end into a 



otty crown, in old roots as much as an inch in diameter, from which 



I ing the numerous wiry aerial stems, beset at the base with scaly 



imentary leaves often of a purplish hue. Below the crown is a 



Rn^^l 5^P'^'*^*^^ A ^o A of an inch thick, of contorted or somewhat 

 nl! J ^*^^i'na, which usually soon divides into 2 or 3 spreading branches 

 ^^d smaller filiform rootlets. 



kn \\A ^^^ ^^ light yellowish-grey, translucent, horny, shrivelled, 

 occ ^^^^ partially annulated. Very frequently a keel-shaped ridge 

 W ^^' ^^^^ing like a shrunken sinew through the principal root; it 



ment^f ^r^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ wood, but originates in a one-sided develop- 



^* the liber-tissue. The bark encloses a pure, white woody column 



' TeSJ^J^; ,^^?^"^' of India, 1868. 27. Virginia, &c., Edinb. 1738. 



^^^ con!., ^r^^^)^ ^P^f'le to Dr. Richard ^ AmaniUites Academicce, ii. 12<3. 



^oncermn^ the epidemical diseases of 



