54 On the Medical Properties 



my remonstrances to the contrary, and her entire 

 conviction of its baneful effects on her system. Her 

 attachment to it she could not forego ; and it seemed 

 to occasion death, by destroying the tone of her sto- 

 mach, rather than by re-producing the dropsical com- 

 plaint ; or, perhaps, I should express myself more 

 properly by saying, that the alternate use of Ol. Ri- 

 cini, to obviate the costiveness induced by the opium, 

 and the opium, so impaired her digestive organs, as 

 to occasion her death. 



Hights-Toivn, February 1th, 

 1805. 



VIII. Hints relative to the Medical Properties of the Hy- 

 pericum Perforatum, or Common St. Johrts-Wort. 

 Communicated in a letter to the Editor, from his 

 Brother, William Barton, Esq., of Lancaster, 

 in Pennsylvania. 



WHEN I take up my pen to write to you on 

 a subject with which I am, professionally, altogether 

 unacquainted, and you ****** * t my mind sug- 

 gests to me the recollection of two well-known max- 

 ims ; cuilibet, in sua arte, credendum est, — and Ne 

 Sutor ultra Crepidam. Yet, recollecting, also, that 

 many useful facts and truths have obtained general 

 notoriety, by means apparently ill-suited to the end, I 

 will venture to state what I conceive to be a matter 

 of considerable utility, in your own profession. In 

 short, I mean to give you a plain statement of the ef- 



