19-3 
absorbed as the leaves grow old. This would indicate that as the functions of the 
leaf are lessened the extent of absorbing surface is reduced, 
“When the leaf has apparently nearly stopped absorbing the ‘moisture from 
the tube, it may still be an active insect trap. At this time an especially strong 
odor is given off from the decaying mass of insects. It would seem that the insects 
caught now could be of no use except as a fertilizer, when by the decay of the 
leaves, all this mass of decomposing nitrogenous matter is deposited around the 
roots of the plant, the decaying material, moreover, seems to hasten the decay of 
the leaf, as its vitality is lessened by the advance of the season.” 
The acidity of the water, after it has stood a time in the leaf, is found to be 
due to malic and citric acids. 
History and Habitat.—The Northern Pitcher-plant grows in sphagnum 
swamps from Pennsylvania northward and westward, and southward east of the 
Alleghanies. It flowers northward in June, and ripens its fruit in August. The 
previous use of this plant by the Indians in small-pox, for which it has been held 
by them as specific, is corroborated by homeopathic practice, but has in almost all 
instances been an absolute failure in the hands of the “old school.” They judged that 
the use of the root not only greatly shortened the run of the disease and checked 
maturation, but prevented deep pitting in convalescence. At the last meeting of 
the Epidemiological Society,* a communication was read from Mr. Herbert Miles, 
Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Artillery, respecting a plant that was stated to be 
a specific for small-pox. The remedy is given in the form of a strong infusion of 
the rhizome, and Mr. Miles had, after very considerable difficulty, succeeded in 
obtaining a small supply of the plant, which he forwarded to the Society. Mr. 
Miles is quartered in Canada, where an epidemic of small-pox having broken out 
among the Indians, the disease had proved virulent in the extreme among the 
unprotected, because unvaccinated, natives. However, the alarm had greatly 
diminished on an old squaw going amongst them, and treating the cases with the 
infusion, This treatment, it is said, was so successful as to cure every case. Dr. 
Hooker pronounced the specimens received to be Sarracenia purpurea. Ata meet- 
ing of the Medical Society of Nova Scotia, held at Halifax, a resolution was passed— 
concerning the use of Sarracenia in Variola—that there was not “ any reliable 
data upon which to ground any opinion in favor of its value as a remedial agent. + 
Across the face of an article on the use of this drug in small-pox, appearing 
in the volume I have cited above, a former owner of the book has written : “ This 
medicine was thoroughly tested by Mr. John Thomas Lane in the spring of 
at the Small-pox Hospital at Claremont, in Alexandria, Va., for Pie nerioe o 
several weeks, in the presence of the medical officers of the Third Division Os- 
pital; and proved to be without any curative powers in this disease, and Mr. i 
a humbug. He lost more than fifty per cent. of the cases of variola committe 
to him, more than were lost by any other treatment.” ‘Mr. F, H. Bignell says,f 
+ Med. and Surg. Reporter, ibid., 507. 
* Lond. Pharm. Fourn., Dec., 1861; Four. Mat. Med., 1V, N.S., 37: 
¢ A paper read before the Quebec Geog. Soc’y. 
