02 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



mon practice ; and experience has proved it to be tbe mildest and 

 safest emetic with which we are acquainted, having this peculiar 

 advantage, that if it does not operate by vomit, it readily passes off 

 by the other emunctories. 



It was first introduced to us with the character of an almost in. 

 fallible remedy, in dysenteries and other inveterate fluxes, as diar* 

 rhcea, menorrhagia, and leucorrhcea, and also in disorders proceed- 

 ing from obstructions of long standing ; nor has it lost much of its 

 reputation by time. The use of ipecacuan in these fluxes fs thought 

 to depend upon its restoring perspiration; for in these cases, 

 especially in dysentery and diarrhoea, the skin is dry and tense ; and 

 while the common diaphoretics usually pass off by stool, small doses 

 f this root have been administered with the best effects, proving 

 both laxative and diaphoretic*. In the spasmodic asthma, Dr. 

 Akenside + remarks, that where nothing contraindicates repeated 

 vomiting, he knows no medicine so effectual as ipecacuan. In vio- 

 fcut paroxysms a scruple procures immediate relief. Where the 

 complaint is habitual, from three to five grains every morning, or 

 from five to ten every other morning, may be given for a month or 

 aix weeks. 



This medicine has also been successfully used in hemorrhages J. 

 Several cases of menorrhagia are mentioned by Dahlberg , in which 

 one. third or half a grain was given every four hours till it effected a 

 cure. These small doses are likewise found of great use in catarrhal 

 and even consumptive cases, as well as in various states of fever. 

 Dr. Cullen informs us |f, that he knew a practitioner who cured 

 mtermittents by giving five grains of ipecacuanha, or enough to 

 excite nausea, an hour before the accession of the fit was expected; 

 and that Dr. Thompson, formerly of Montrose, proposed to cure 

 agues by the employment of emetics given at the time of accession, 

 or at the end of the cold stage : and this practice has also been suc- 

 cessful, and may indeed be executed by tartar emetic ; but in trying 



* Dr. Callen attributes its good effects entirely to its purgative quality, M. 

 M. vol. ti. p. 477. 



f Med. Trans, vol.?. p. 96. 



$ See Gianella de admirabili Ipec. virtute in curandis febribug. Patav, 

 1754. Also Bergtus (M. M. p. 103.) and others. 



^ Vet. Acad. Handl. vol. xxxi.p.316. a 1770. 



