SCUTELLARIA 315 



high reputation, therefore, of Scullcap, perhaps surpassing 

 that of any other remedy, practitioners ought to resort to 

 the use of it on any occasion which may offer, either in 

 relieving mankind from this awful malady, or in arresting 

 the devastation among the brute creation." 



TREATMENT. The following is the manner in which 

 Mr. Lewis and Dr. Van Derveer respectively prepared 

 and administered the remedy: 



"The leaves of Scutellaria should be gathered when in 

 flower, carefully dried, reduced to a fine powder, and 

 put into bottles, well corked, for use. When a person 

 has received a bite by a mad dog, he must take of a 

 strong infusion of the leaves or powder, a gill four or 

 five times a day, every other day. The day it is omitted 

 he must take a spoonful of the flowers of sulphur in 

 molasses, in the morning, fasting, and at bedtime in 

 new milk, and apply the pounded green herb to the 

 wound every two hours, continuing the prescription 

 for three weeks. For cattle or horses, use four times 

 that prescribed for a man. Thacher." 



THE DISCREDITING OF SCUTELLARIA. Between the 

 date of the discovery of the properties of scutellaria in 

 1773, by Dr. Van Derveer, who experienced nearly 

 half a century of quiet, neighborhood practice of medi- 

 cine, and the charlatanism methods of the weaver, 

 Lewis, who knew nothing of medicine, but was an ad- 

 vertising l< mad-dog doctor," scutellaria passed into of- 

 fensive notoriety, several causes uniting to discredit 

 the drug. 



1. The hostility of the leaders of the medical pro- 

 fession, largely by reason of its newspaper popularity, 

 through which the drug had come to be dominated by 

 non-medical men. 



