146 On the Use of the Seneka-Snake-Root, 



But, without delay, take about three drams of the Sene- 

 ka- Snake-Root, and, reducing it to a coarse powder, 

 put it into a convenient earthen vessel, and pour to it 

 half a pint of boiling water: cover the vessel, and let 

 the tea simmer half an hour before the fire, when it will 

 be fit for use. Then pour as much of it on an ounce 

 and a half, or two ounces, of Glauber's Salts, as will 

 dissolve them, and as soon as the mixture is cool, give 

 a small wine-glassful to the patient, and repeat the dose 

 every twelve or fifteen minutes, till several motions are 

 procured, and the stomach and bowels well cleansed. 

 Then stop the use of the mixture, and give the decoc- 

 tion alone, in the same quantity as before, but at the in- 

 terval of an hour and a half, observing to sweeten each 

 dose with sugar, to render it more agreeable to the 

 stomach. This is to be continued until the fever and 

 pains are removed, which is often effected in twenty- 

 four hours, or less. Should the first doses of the mix- 

 ture be thrown up, to ensure and facilitate its cathartic 

 operation, it will be proper early to use injections; and 

 if, after the first evacuations, and the use of the tea alone 

 for some hours, the body is not kept sufficiently open, 

 which may be known by the redness of the eyes, the 

 offensiveness of the stools, a hard, and sometimes feeble 

 pulse, drowsiness, and restlessness, it will be proper 

 to resort to the use of the salts again, until free evacua- 

 tions are procured : then go on with the tea as before. 

 This mode of treatment cures the patient, while the dis- 

 ease is in its inflammatory stage, before it assumes the 

 putrid form; and it is of the last importance to begin 

 giving medicine as soon as the disease commences." 



