PHARMACOP@GIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
HYDRASTIS 
Hydrastis canadensis is native to North America. Once abun- 
dant in the thick woodlands of the Central West, in the territory bor- 
dering the Ohio River from Illinois to Virginia, it is now in its native 
home practically exterminated. Hydrastis is known by the common 
names, golden seal, yellow puccoon, yellow root, and other similar ex- 
pressive appellations signifying its color or applying to its nature. The 
root of this plant, of a rich golden yellow, like its companion, san- 
guinaria, which, however, has a red color, was used by the Indians as a 
cuticle stain, and also as a dye for their garments. Being exceedingly 
bitter, it was also useful in repelling insects, when mixed with grease 
and smeared upon the skin, and hence served a double purpose in the 
use of primitive man. Its first printed conspicuity came from a paper 
read by Mr. Hugh Martin (408) before the American Philosophical 
Society, 1782, published in their Transactions, 1793, under the title, 
“An account of some of the principal Dyes employed by the North 
American Indians.” By reason of its red berry, hydrastis was also 
called ground raspberry. Although it had been mentioned in various 
medical publications, the drug was held in slight repute, and was of 
no commercial importance until the advent of the American Eclectics, 
who first prepared its alkaloidal salts for professional use (388a). Its 
medical history dates from its use by the Indians, who introduced it 
as a native remedy to the earliest botanical explorers, and to settlers. 
Its therapeutic qualities were overlooked, however, by Kalm (350), 
1772; Cutler (178), 1783; and Schoepf (582), 1785; Barton (43) first 
bringing it before the medical profession, 1798. He credits the Chero- 
kee Indians for its ascribed uses, and in the third part of his work 
(1804) he devotes considerable attention to the drug. Rafinesque 
(535) (1828) states that the Indians employed it as a stimulant, and 
that the Cherokees used it for cancer, in which direction better reme- 
dies were to them known. The principal use of hydrastis by the In- 
dians, however, and which afterwards crept into domestic practice, 
was as an infusion or wash for skin diseases and for sore or inflamed 
eyes. It was also employed as a stimulant for indolent ulcers, and as 
an internal tonic. Hydrastis may be considered typical of the drugs 
that are employed very extensively by the medical profession, through 
their empirical introduction, it being recorded that even for gonorrhea 
the Indians discovered its utility. 
Early authorities on American medical plants, such as Barton (43) 
(1798 and 1804), Hand (298) (House Surgeon, 1820), Rafinesque 
(535), Elisha Smith (601) (1830), Kost (361) (1851), Sanborn 
(571) (1835), give to hydrastis considerable conspicuity, whilst Dun- 
glison’s Medical Dictionary (203) pessimistically (1852) states that in 
Kentucky only it is used, and then only as an outward application, for 
wounds. (See Drugs and Medicines of North America, Pp. 154-5 
[389].) 
HYOSCYAMUS 
_ Hyoscyamus niger is distributed throughout Eur from 
Portugal and Greece to Norway and Finland. It is found’ in the 
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