94 NAT. ORDER. ASCLEPIADELE. 



less, for I deem it a valuable article : my only object is to endeavor 

 to present to the public its prominent virtues, divested of what in 

 my own opinion is an aggregation of imputed but unreal qualities. 

 A gentleman of Virginia, who, judging from his own w^ritings, is not 

 a regular physician, first brought this plant into very general notice, 

 as a cure for the pleurisy : hence it is often called Pleurisy-root. He 

 has been quoted by the late Prof Barton, and subsequently by the 

 compilers of the American dispensatories ; and thus have his exag- 

 gerated accounts been extensively diffused throughout our country, 

 without any good effect, perhaps, than that of bringing a plant into 

 general notice, which really possesses medicinal virtues, though not 

 of the nature and number specified in those accounts. To the gen- 

 tleman alluded to, however, is not to be imputed the discovery of 

 the remedial effects of White-root. 



Dr. Shoepf mentions this plant, and specifies the property for 

 which it seems to me most probable it w'ill become useful — its effect 

 in inducing diaphoresis. He says it is a diaphoretic in the dose of 

 one drachm ; that it is slightly astringent ; that the powdered root 

 is useful in cholic ; an aqueous decoction in hysteria and menorriia- 

 gia; and a vinous decoction in dysentery. This account by Dr. 

 Shoepf, of the " Asclepias tabcrosa,'' as he calls it, inadvertently es- 

 caped the attention of the late Prof Barton, otherwise he would, it 

 is presumed, have quoted this author when speaking of the plant in 

 question. Under the names '■ Butterfly-root, Pleurisy-root," Sheepf 

 also speaks of the use of some plant in pleurisy and febrile dis- 

 eases, and then tells us, on the authority of the late Rev. Dr. Muh- 

 lenberg, that the name of Pleurisy-root was first applied to the As- 

 clepias tuberosa, and that a decoction of it was esteemed a certain 

 remedy for pleurisy. Prof Barton informs us that " the rest of this 

 plant is said to possess a remarkable power of affecting the skin, 

 inducing general and plentiful perspiration, without greatly increas- 

 ing the heat of the body ; that it is much employed by the practi- 

 tioners of medicine in some parts of the United States, particularly 



