60 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



The name Macrotys is now so firmly established in T 

 Eclectic literature that it is not likely to be displaced, 

 although in botanical works as well as in the Pharma- 

 copeia the plant has become generally known as Cim- 

 icifuga racemosa. 



Cimicifuga, (Macrotys), was highly valued by the 

 Indians, who employed decoctions of the root for dis- 

 eases of women, for debility, to promote perspiration, 

 as a gargle for sore throat, and especially for treatment 

 of rheumatism. These uses by the Indians introduced 

 the drug to students of early "domestic" American 

 medicine, and it was consequently given much atten- 

 tion by such early writers as Schopf, 1785, Barton, 1801, 

 Peter Smith, 1812, Bigelow, 1822, Garden, 1823, Ewell, 

 1827, Rafinesque, 1828, and Tonga and Durand's addi- 

 tion to Edwards' and Vavasseur's Materia Medica, 

 1829. None of the early writers added anything not 

 already given by the Indians, so far as the field of 

 action of the drug is concerned, excepting perhaps a 

 statement by Howard, (Botanic), 1832, who was an 

 enthusiast in favor of macrotys in the treatment of 

 smallpox, a claim supported forty years after by Dr. 

 G. H. Norris. In a paper read before the Alabama 

 State Medical Association, 1872, he reported that dur- 

 ing an epidemic of smallpox in Huntsville, Alabama, 

 families using macrotys as a tea were absolutely free 

 from smallpox, and that in these families vaccination 

 had no effect whatever so long as the use of macrotys 

 was continued. l 



In the early use of the drug, the infusion was em- 

 ployed, the following being Howard's statement (1836) 

 concerning it: 



i This is of great interest and should be systematically verified. 



