NAT. OHDER. — rArAVERACJLE. 125 



dislodge worms from the stomach. This hint of the anthelmintic 

 property of this part, may not, perhaps, be unworthy of notice, 

 though other emetics have sometimes produced the same effect. 

 Dr. Siiccpf has also mentioned that a weak decoction of the root 

 was used in gonorrhoea, against the bites of serpents, and in bilious 

 diseases ; that the juice was employed against warts, and that the 

 powder of the root, in the dose of one drachm, was exhibited in 

 jaundice. Dr. Dexter, of Cambridge, Mass., says that in some trials 

 he made with the plant, it proved efficacious as a stimulant and 

 diaphoretic in doses of one grain of the powdered root, or ten drops 

 of the saturated tincture. Dr. Thatcher mentions the reputed effi- 

 cacy of this root in removing jaundice, and says it is believed to be 

 the chief ingredient in the quack medicine known by the name of 

 J?atcson's bitters. A spirituous tincture of the root is said to be fre- 

 quently used in New England, in various diseases, as a tonic bitter." 

 Prof. Barton, speaking further of the qualities of this root, says : " I 

 prepared some of the tincture from the recent roots, last spring. It 

 is intensely bitter, approaching, in its permanent impression on the 

 tongue, to acerb. I have used this preparation of the plant in three 

 cases, and with the manifest effect of increasing the appetite and 

 tone of the stomach. It was used in the same way as wine bitters. 

 1 can readily believe that in this form it has done much good, at 

 least as a prophylactic, in those low marshy grounds of the southern 

 states, where the inhabitants are said to use it to guard them against 

 intermittents, and what the country people call ' inward fevers.' The 

 dose of the saturated tincture of the root is from thirty to eighty 

 drops, twice a day, increasing or decreasing the number as circum- 

 stances may require. I have found twenty drops twice a day a good 

 average dose. 



A decoction of the root has been recommended in tiie treatment 

 of old and indolent ulcers ; and tlie powdered root applied a few 

 times in .some cases of ill-conditioned ulcers, with callous edges and 

 an inchorous discharge, produced a healtiiy stale of the sores. I 



