78 Dr. Hancock on Sarsaparillct. 



many of the most untoward disorders, and those too, both acute 

 and chronic, for similar conclusions may likewise be drawn from 

 those methods which have been found to be the most successful 

 in cases of yellow fever. 



It is well known there are a great variety of exceedingly use- 

 ful remedies amongst the indigenous vegetables in England, but 

 these, in general, appear to be too much neglected by the 

 members of the faculty, who, however eminent in other re- 

 spects for exalted talents and profound medical skill, seem, on 

 the whole, to evince rather too exclusive a preference to the 

 chemical or chemico-mineral remedies at present in vogue. 

 Amongst those native plants I should venture to propose the 

 Taraxacum, or Dandelion, as a valuable addition to this com- 

 pound infusion of Sarsaparilla (p.G8). This plant, the Taraxacum, 

 is acknowledged to be a useful remedy in certain obstructions and 

 disorders of the liver, by some eminent English physicians ; and 

 on the continent, in Germany especially, it is employed with 

 the most decided advantage as an alterative in cutaneous affec- 

 tions, and many very obstinate chronic maladies, as I have 

 been assured by Earl Stanhope, the distinguished President 

 of the Medico-Botanical Society, who, to the more renowned 

 and splendid talents of a statesman as a peer of the realm, 

 unites a love of all the sciences conducive to human happiness ; 

 attaching however a more particular interest to the advancement 

 of Medical Botany, on which subject he has manifested the 

 most correct views and soundest intelligence : he is moreover 

 sensibly impressed with a conviction that, in the prevalent 

 affection for mere descriptive botany, its more important and 

 scientific objects have been nearly overlooked and disregarded, 

 viz. the application of its principles to useful purposes in me- 

 dicine, in the arts, and to domestic comforts and economy. 



His Lordship being absent (on the Continent) I have used 

 this reference without permission, persuaded however, that he 

 would not refuse his name to a discussion which involves the 

 public good, and the objects of the Medico-Botanical Society. 



