SASSAFRAS 295 



"Sassafras variifolium (Salisbury), 0. Kuntze, adopted 

 in the U. S. Pharmacopeia, 1890." 



The boyhood of the author of this study of drugs was 

 spent in the country (in Kentucky), where sassafras 

 abounds. He records as follows: 



"I do not remember to have smelled the fragrance of 

 sassafras trees, mentioned by the early authorities, un- 

 less the trees were broken or bruised. I have at all 

 seasons passed through thickets of trees, young and 

 old, and am sure that the statement that the fragrance 

 is wafted far out to sea is overdrawn, as I observed no 

 odor whatever, and am satisfied that unbroken sassa- 

 fras exhales no aroma. When land in Kentucky has 

 been 'worked poor/ and turned out to rest, it is likely 

 to spring up in thickets of sassafras, persimmon, and 

 black locust. I have heard old farmers, in speaking of a 

 farm, say it was 'too poor to raise sassafras/ and no 

 greater reflection could be cast on that land. No 

 special value is put on sassafras wood; it is not sought 

 for fence posts, nor is it used to drive away insects of 

 any description. 



"As a remedy, the root bark of sassafras is used in the 

 spring to 'thin the blood/ a decoction from this being 

 drunk as a tea. Indeed, I do not dislike this 'tea' as a 

 breakfast beverage, early impressions leading me now, 

 occasionally, to procure fresh bark for a family brewing 

 of 'sassafras tea/ made after the same manner in 

 which tea is prepared as a beverage, and served in the 

 same way, either clear, or with cream and sugar, ac- 

 cording to taste. That sassafras tea was a very com- 

 mon beverage in my boyhood days, is shown by the 

 following incident: I was traveling up the Ohio River 

 on one of the palatial steamers of other days, (1858). 



