THUJA OCCIDENTALS. 20 



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a native of North America and Canada, was only introduced 

 into this country about the end of the sixteenth century. It 

 has never been used in allopathic therapeutics. 



Description, — Thuja occidentalis is an evergreen tree of 

 humble growth, much branched, very different from most others 

 in the compressed vertical aspects of its younger shoots and 

 their closely imbricated leaves y which are small, obtuse with a 

 point, smooth; those of two opposite rows compressed and 

 keeled, the intermediate ones flat, with a glandular point, or 

 cell of resin, at the back. The flowers appear in May, and are 

 small, solitary, terminal ; the males yellowish and most abundant. 

 Cones ripen the following year, drooping, each the size of a 

 filbert-kernel, consisting of about half a dozen lax, smooth, 

 coriaceous scales. The smell of the bruised plant is something 

 like Savine, aromatic, but not agreeable (Smith). 



Geographical Distribution. — Native of North America, 

 from Canada to the mountains of Virginia and Carolina. Four 

 other species are known, viz.: 1, Th. orientalis, native of rocky 

 places in China; 2, Th. articulata, native of Barbary; 3> Th. 

 dolabrata, native of Japan ; and, 4, Th. cupressoides, native of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. The Th. occidentalis is distinguished 

 from the Th. orientalis by there being no resinous dot on the 

 leaves of the latter. They are both cultivated in this country. 



Parts used in Medicine, and Mode of Preparation. — 



The Leaves, gathered before the tree begins to flower, then 

 bruised in a mortar; one part of the bruised leaves is mixed 

 with two parts of alcohol, and the juice expressed to make the 

 first attenuation. Three drops of this juice are to be added to 

 ninety-seven of alcohol, and shaken, etc. 



Medical Uses (Homceofathic).— Hahnemann's observation : 

 " No European physician had, previously to myself, made any 

 important use of this plant in medicine ; for all that is said of it by 

 Parkinson and Herrmann is based evidently only upon theo- 

 retical conjectures, according to the manner usually admitted 

 in general therapeutics. According to Boerhaave, distilled 



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