STRAMONIUM 323 



In the form of an infusion or decoction it was long used 

 in domestic medicine as a purgative and alterative, 

 creeping thence to the attention of physicians of the 

 Southern States. It was also employed empirically in 

 cutaneous diseases, and as a constituent of various 

 "blood purifiers," was commonly used by the people of 

 the South. A once popular remedy, Wayne's Panacea, 

 was asserted by Rafinesque (535) to depend for its 

 qualities upon stillingia, which Dr. John King, (356, 

 357) in his American Dispensatory, most positively con- 

 troverted. Inasmuch as Peter Smith (605), the "Indian 

 Herb Doctor," neglects stillingia in his Dispensatory, 

 while Rafinesque (535) gives it brief mention in his 

 Medical Equivalents, it is evident that the drug came 

 to the general attention of the medical profession by 

 reason of its use by the settlers, about thfe date of the 

 first edition of King's American Dispensatory, 1852. 

 Since that period until the early 60's, it was a conspic- 

 uous constituent of the popular American "blood puri- 

 fiers," and in the form of compound syrup of stillingia 

 was used alike in empirical medication and by the 

 profession. 



STRAMONIUM 

 (Stramonium, Jamestown Weed, Jimson Weed) 



Official, in whole or in part, in every edition of the U. S. P., 

 from 1820 to 1910. The early editions, 1820, 1828 and 1830, 

 (both New York and Philadelphia), mention both leaves and 

 seed. The editions of 1840 and 1850 make the root also official, 

 but from 1860 the root is unmentioned. , The editions of 1900 

 and 1910 confine their recognition to the leaves of stramonium. 

 U. S. P., 1910, permits leaves of Datura Stramonium or of 

 Datura Tatula. 



Datura Stramonium is now found throughout most 

 parts of the temperate civilized world. It was early 

 noticed in America, where the settlers near Jamestown, 



