‘PYROLA UMBELLATA. ORD. XVII. Bicornes. 41 
a week or two, the same distinct operation took place on returning to its 
use, as had been manifested in the first instance. It proved, in almost 
every case, a very acceptable medicine to the patient, and was preferred 
both for its sensible qualities and its effects on the stomach, to other diuretics 
and alteratives which had been prescribed. Asa tonic, the Pyrola umbellata 
has been employed in intermittents, scrofula, and other diseases where this 
class of remedies are indicated. Dr. Mitchell, an American physician, 
relates some cases of its success in those fevers. In one of them, the urine, 
which was considerably increased in quantity, was of a dark brown colour. 
Dr. Heberden has recorded a case of a similar colour being produced by the 
wa ursi. We are told, the Indians administer a strong and warm decoc- 
tion of this plant in rheumatism and fever: they employ the whole plant, 
and take it in large quantities. As an external remedy, it has been used 
as a cataplasm, and with apparent success in various chronic indurated 
swellings. It acts as a topical stimulant, and, when long continued, we 
are told, it often vesicates. Tumours of long-standing, have, in several 
instances, disappeared under its use. It has also been employed in the 
form of fomentation to ill-conditioned ulcers, and with good effects.* 
The Dublin College directs the following method of preparing the decoc- 
tion of Pyrola as recommended by Dr. Somerville. 
R. Pyrole umbellate . . . + + Zi 
Aqua mensura . . . . - ~ = Ibij 
Macerate for six hours, then bruise and return the Pyrola to the liquor, and 
reduce the mixture by evaporation, when strained and expressed to lbj by 
measure. Dose from one ounce to three, three or four times a day. 
'* Another species of the genus Pyrola, the Pyrola rotundifolia, is said to be used by 
Indians in North America, as a topical stimulant, and vesicant. And Mr. Pursh says of 
the nearly-allied Pyrola, (Chimaphila) maculata, that it is held in high»esteem for its 
medicinal properties by the native Canadians, who call it sip-si-seua. He has himself 
witnessed a successful cure, effected by a decoction of this plant, in a very serious case 
of hysterics. According to Dr. Torrey, the Pyrola umbellata is also called pip-si-sewa, 
or sip-si-sewa. In all probability the properties of the two species of Chimaphile are 
identical. — ie : 
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