10 Dr. Hancock on Haimarada. 



some gleams of the gastro-hepatic theory of fevers, so prevalent, 

 at present, amongst our European brethren. This plant is, indeed, 

 their main resort, both in continued and intermittent fevers. 



Their method, in the former disease, is to boil a small hand- 

 ful of the fresh leaves in water, of which they take a sufficient 

 quantity to produce full vomiting, repeating the dose for two or 

 three following mornings, and even four or five, if the fever 

 prove obstinate. 



In intermittents, they employ it as an emetic, agreeably to 

 the practice of Celsus : — " Cum primum aliquis inhorruit, et 

 ex horrore incaluit, dare ei oportet potui tepidam aquam sub- 

 salsam, et vomere eum cogere ; nam fere talis horror ab iis oritur, 

 quae biliosa in stomacho resederunt." (Lib. 3, Cap. 12.) 



It must be observed withal, that they make great use of 

 baths, fomentations, and frictions, in continued and inflamma- 

 tory fevers in general ; and little or nothing is wanting, except 

 the use of the lancet, to render their practice in fevers tolerahly 

 complete. As it is, however, it appears to be not less successful 

 than ours. 



The plant in question belongs to the class Dydynamia and 

 order Angiospermia ; and to the Personatas of the natural orders, 

 being in natural affinities allied to Herpestes of Gaertner, 



to SCROPHULARIA, GRATIOLA, DIGITALIS, VERONICA, &C 



In botanical characters, it coincides very accurately with 

 Vandellia diffusa. It may, therefore, be sufficient if I ex- 

 tract from Willdenow what he has collected from the Mantissa 

 of Lin. and from Vahl's Eclogae — "Calyx sub-quadrifidus; 

 Corolla riugens ; Filamenta 2 exteriora e disco labii corrollae ; 

 Anther a connexae ; Capsula uniloculars, polysperma. Habatat 

 in Insula Montserrat et St. Crucis. Caulis herbaceus, tetragonus, 

 brachiatus ; Folia ovata, sessilia, crenata, obtusiuscula; Floi'es 

 axillaris, oppositi, solitarii. Habitus Veronica serpi/lifolice." 

 Mant. " Caulis herbaceus, ramosus, tetragonus, filiformis, 

 pubescens. Folia breviter petiolata, vix unguicularia, sub-ro- 

 tund, i, supra glabra, juniora subtus pilis rarioribus, serrata, 

 ma, enervia. Pednnculi axillarcs, solitarii, uuiflori, alterni, 



