34 On the Rhus Radicans. 



hope, nay the strongest assurance, that you will de- 

 rive the same advantage from using the medicine. 



There are two vines of the same species, called 

 " Poison-Vines." The one grows in meadows, and 

 appears like a number of small vines from the same 

 root, matting and creeping spirally around old stumps 

 and trees, both dead and green. The other, which 

 is the one you are to make use of, you will find grow- 

 ing in strong, rich uplands, where water sometimes 

 stagnates. This vine usually rises at the root of a 

 large oak, and ascends straight with the trunk of the 

 tree, to which it connects itself by a number of small 

 fibres, and adheres so closely that it is hardly percep- 

 tible, until you observe its leaf and branches, which 

 generally shoot out at six, eight, or ten feet from the 

 ground. 



You are to cut this last vine into pieces of ten 

 inches, or a foot, in length ; take the bark carefully 

 off; divide these pieces into as many slips as you can, 

 throwing away the bark and pith. Put as many of 

 these slips as a man can grasp between both hands, 

 into a clean, iron pot, with one gallon of water, which 

 is to be reduced, by boiling, to something better than 

 a pint. Of this decoction, which you may sweeten 

 to your palate, take three wine-glasses full every day, 

 at three equal periods, beginning (fasting) in the 

 morning. 



