72 NAT. ORDER. ERICEiE. 



that which is found in dry, lofty and exposed situations, is preferred 

 for medical use to that which is collected in valleys and shady 

 grounds. The leaves of this plant, in a dried state, have no remark- 

 able smell, but a bitterish, astringent taste, and by some have been 

 used for the purpose of dying an ash color, and for tanning leather. 

 The .sapid matter of these leaves has been attributed rather to the 

 presence of gummy than of resinous particles, as water will more 

 completely extract their virtues than spirit. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The Uva ursi, though employed 

 by the ancients in several diseases requiring astringent medicines, 

 had almost fallen into disuse, till about the middle of the present 

 century, when it first drew the attention of physicians as a useful 

 remedy in calculous and nephritic affections ; and, in tlie years 1763 

 and 1764, by the concurrent testimonies of different authors, it ac- 

 quired remarkable celebrity, not only for its efficacy in gravelly com- 

 plaints, but in almost every other disease to which the urinary organs 

 are liable : such as ulcers of the kidneys and bladder, cystirrhoea, 

 diabetes, &c., and its utility was then thouglit to be so fully estab- 

 lished, that a celebrated Spanish writer made it his boast, that the 

 man to whom these important discoveries of the effects of this plant 

 ouglit first to be referred, was his countryman. He was, however, 

 superseded in this claim by the physicians at Montpelier, who had 

 been in the habit of prescribing Uva ursi in these diseases for many 

 years before. But the cases published successively by De Haen 

 tended more to raise the medical character of Uva ursi over Europe 

 and this country, than all the other books professedly written on the 

 virtues of this plant : and, encouraged by his success, many practi- 

 tioners, especially in Europe, have been induced to try its effects ; 

 and though the use of this plant has been frequently observed to 

 mitigate the pains in calculous cases, yet in no instance do we find 

 that it has produced that essential or permanent relief which is said 

 to have been experienced by the German physicians. 



The virtues of this plant are variously represented by writers 



