18 DISSERTATION ON THE 



limited principally to the domestic prescrip- 

 tions of families remote from our principal 

 cities. It has long been employed by many 

 of our Indian tribes, as a successful remedy, 

 ill the treatment of intermitting and remitting 

 fevers ; and such is supposed to have been its 

 efficacy in the cure of these diseases, that it 

 acquired the name of ague-weed. It has also 

 been employed in other diseases, in which 

 emetics and sudorifics were indicated ; and 

 in certain preparations, recourse has been 

 occasionally had to it as a tonic. In the 

 treatment of the yellow fever, as it has pre- 

 vailed in different parts of the United States, 

 and in other febrile disorders, its efficacy, as 

 an active sudorific, has been acknowledged 

 by many respectable writers. AVith a view, 

 however, of ascertaining more particularly 

 the peculiar properties of this plant, and its 

 virtues as an article of the materia medica, 

 the following experiments were instituted. 

 Its application in the treatment of diseases, 

 as deduced from these experiments, with the 

 opportunities which the writer has enjoyed 



