NAT. ORDER — PVUOLACE.E. ]~[] 



etics, none of which are agreeable to the stomach, and most iS tlicni 

 very ofFensivo to it. lie further states that no circumstance had 

 occurred within his own c;x[)erience or niformation, to forliitl its use 

 in any form, or to limit the (h)se. Sir Walter Farquhar, stales that 

 he used the Pyrola, in the case of a lady laboring under ascites in 

 which the diuretic effect of tliis plant were very striking. Dr. 

 Barton, author of " The Vegetable Materia Medica of the United 

 States," also corroborates the accounts of the diuretic effects of this 

 vegetable, by four cases which came under his care at the Marine's 

 Hospital, Philadelpia, in which a sti'ong infusion was given with the 

 most decided advantage. Dr. Bigelow says : " I have administered 

 this plant on various occasions, and attended to its operation. In 

 a number of dropsical cases, when first given, it made a distinct and 

 evident impression on the disease, communicating an increased 

 activity to the absorbents, followed by a great augmentation of the 

 excretion from the kidneys; but," says he, " I found it better to omit 

 the medicine for a time, and resume it afresh, than to continue until 

 the system had become insensible to its stimulus." It has proved, 

 in almost every case, a very acceptable medicine to the patient 

 and is prefered both for its sensible qualities and its effects on the 

 stomach, to other diuretics and alteratives which have been pre- 

 scribed. Dr. Mitchell, an American jihysician, relates many cases 

 of its extraordinary success administered in fevers. We are told 

 that the Indians administer a strong and warm decoction of this 

 plant in rheumatism and fever; they employ the whole plant, and 

 take it in large quantities. Many cases which have come under 

 my own observation, in the treatment of patients, and where I have 

 watched its effects, have satisfied me that the Pyrola umhdlata 

 possesses most highly valuable medical properties, especially in the 

 treatment of dropsies, ulcers, tumors, scroffula, etc. As an exter- 

 nal remedy, it has been used with success in various chronic indu- 

 rated swellmgs. 



