ASARUM EUROPEUM. 57 
plant, mixed with equal parts of alcohol, and then attenuated 
to the 30th dilution, as directed under Aconite. 
Mepican Uses (Hommorarnic).— This medicine was 
described by Hahnemann and others, and the symptoms re- 
corded in the Materia Medica Pura. ‘The following are his 
observations: “If any proof were wanting to show the negli- 
gence with which the old school of medicine has attempted 
to study the effects of simple medicinal substances, it would be 
supplied by the labours of Coste and Willemet, who, in their 
chief work (Essats sur quelques Plantes indigénes, Nancy, 1778), 
have treated of Asarum. What results have they obtained 
from their examination? Not one of those remarkable symp- 
toms hereafter enumerated, excepting that a dose, from twenty- 
eight to forty grains, caused vomiting five or six times. But of 
what nature? They say not a word. They add that a porter 
having taken forty-eight grains of Asarum, experienced severe 
colic, with purgation and vomiting, which was allayed by a 
layement of milk, from which they inferred that the root of this 
plant acts similarly to ipecacuanha. But did it produce no 
other effects? and was this all the benefit to be expected from 
it? With what negligence must the observations have been 
made, in a matter of so much importance, when they profess to 
have seen nothing more; to have noticed no other effects; to 
have discovered no other cases in which Asarum might be more 
beneficial. , 
“No, Asarum is not better adapted as an emetic, to take the 
place of ipecacuanha, than many other substances which, when 
given in too powerful doses, are also expelled by nature, by 
means of violent vomiting, such as arsenic, sulphate of zinc, 
sulphate of copper, white hellebore, etc. 
“ Then, do all these substances which, when taken in excess, 
excite dangerous vomiting, exist to be used only as emetics? 
How short-sighted, how contented with superficial notions, and 
therefore dangerous ones, must one be to admit such opinions! — 
