352 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



the Indians and the early American settlers, who used 

 it both in form of ointment and in decoction. 



American veratrum is conceded by all modern bot- 

 anists to be a distinct species. It is so close, however, 

 to Veratrum album of Europe, that the early explorers 

 of America, and some of the earlier botanists, Michaux, 

 Josselyn (345), Kalm (350), Schopf (582), etc., 

 thought it the same species. Certainly the rhizomes 

 of both plants bear a close resemblance, even in their 

 microscopical aspects. (E. S. Bastin, Am. Jour. Phar. 

 1895, p. 196). 



VIBURNUM OPULUS (Cramp Bark) 



Mentioned in but two editions of the U. S. P., those of 1890 

 and 1900. 



High cranberry, Viburnum Opulus, known also as 

 cramp bark, is a shrub growing in swamps and damp 

 localities of the northern United States. The bark of 

 this shrub was used by the Indians (535) as a diuretic, 

 a decoction being freely employed. According to Ra- 

 finesque (535), pills and plasters were also devised from 

 this plant, and the bark was smoked instead of tobacco 

 by some of the Western Indian tribes. The leaves of 

 Viburnum Opulus and other species of Viburnum were 

 used by the Indians as a tea, and also by the settlers of 

 the southern states in early Colonial days. The domes- 

 tic use of viburnum did not impress the medical profes- 

 sion to any extent until the day of Beach (49), as is 

 evidenced by the fact that such conspicuous author- 

 ities as Zollickoffer (706), and even the United States 

 Dispensatory, 1833 edition, neglected to mention either 

 the plant or its uses. At present, authors who believe 

 the direct physiological action of drugs essential to 

 therapeutic usefulness, also neglect viburnum. 



