176-2 
There are four other North American species of Veratrum, all of which may be 
compared with the species under consideration. 
The first account we have of the use of this plant is that of Josselyn* (1638), 
who speaks of the use of the root as an ordeal by the young Aborigines in the 
selection of their tribal chiefs—*he whose stomach withstood its action the longest 
was decided to be the strongest of the party, and entitled to command the rest.” 
Kalm (1749) states} that at the time of his visit here the people used a decoction 
of this plant externally in the cure of scorbutic affections, and to destroy vermin. 
He also states that corn was soaked in a strong decoction of the root before 
planting, to protect it against birds, and observed that birds, after eating of this 
corn, became attacked with vertigo, and in their blind struggling frightened away 
the balance of the flock ; those who ate of the grain, however, recovering from its 
effects. The first prescriber of the drug in regular practice was probably Dr. John 
Ware, who used it in the Boston Almshouse in cases of tinea capitis. Dr. Bigelow 
states§ that during the Revolutionary War, when V7, a/éum could not be procured, 
various gouty patients used the American plant with success, not finding a point 
of difference. It is doubtless right to give Dr. Norwood, of South Carolina, the 
credit of establishing the proper method of administering the drug,|| and it was 
through his use in part that its employment began in England in 1862. Although 
Dr. Ware was probably the first to experiment with this drug to gain an idea of 
its physiological action, Drs, Tully and Ives (1830) were the first to investigate its 
therapeutic action as well. Dr. Charles Osgood, who studied under Professor 
Tully—modestly giving the professor most of the honor of learning its properties 
—wrote an excellent essay upon the drug in 1835.9 Little attention, however, 
seemed to follow this essay until Dr. Norwood’s paper appeared in 1851, from 
which time the drug gained gradually the prominence it now holds, principally 
through the efforts of Prof. Samuel Percy in 1856, Drs. Miller, Belden, Cutter, 
Richard (1858), Ingalls, and Prof. M'Gugin of Iowa (1861). 
The principal uses of the drug were as a depressor of the heart's action 
wherever it was deemed necessary, and an application and internal remedy in 
arthritic troubles of all kinds: its officinal preparations in the U.S. Ph. being 
Extractum Veratri Viridis Fluidum and Tinctura Veratri Viridts. 
PART USED AND PREPARATION.—The fresh root, gathered after the 
leaves have fallen in autumn, is treated as in the preceding drug, exceptins 
_ that dilute alcohol is used. 
= oe resulting tincture has a brilliant, slightly orange, madder color by trans~_ 
mitt | 
d light; a peculiar rich odor and taste; and an acid reaction. 3 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.—Dr. Chas. Osgood** and Thos. A. Mitchellfy 
Ee. ed first to suspect by analysis that the alkaloid commonly known as — ae 
trine existed in the species viride, and H. W. Worthington ff the first to assert tne 
* New England Rarities Discovered, Lond. 
_ t Travelin North America, vol, ii. 
1672, p. 46; Account of Two Voyages to New Eagle CE a eS 
JF ae _ { Communication to Dr. Bigelow. 3 Am. oS 
___ | 5 to 8 drops of the tincture, as advised in this w ie nes q Am. Jour: Mt 
Se ee Cie A ete oa pe ek tt Ibid., vol. x, P- 11% 
