270 Uvularia perfoliata as a remedy for Poisoned Wounds. 



The shell here published as the Unio Sayii, in honor of the 

 first American conchologist, has been supposed by Mr. Lea to be 

 "a middle aged camptodon of Say," and by Mr. Conrad and 

 some others, to be the c?ec/ms of Say. Without entering into a 

 minute comparison here, let those who have the Unios campto- 

 don and declivis of Say and this shell, compare them with each 

 other, and they will be compelled to agree that they are three dis- 

 tinct and well marked species. Those who have not the shells 

 to compare, will arrive at the same conclusion, by a careful com- 

 parison of the drawings of the declivis^ plate 35, of the American 

 Conchology ; of the camptodo7i, plate 42, of the same work ; and 

 the drawing. No. 1, herewith given : all by the same accurate 

 and skillful hand. In general, the western conchologists adopt 

 Mr. Lea's classification and nomenclature of the Naiades, with 

 perhaps but one exception, the niytiloides, which they are not 

 able to find in Rafinesque's Monograph. But in dissenting 

 from his opinion in this instance, and calling the Unio Sayii a 

 new and undescribed shell, the opinion of Dr. Ward is supported 

 by all those conchologists ; nor does it seem probable to them that 

 Mr. Lea would have called it a camptodon, or Mr. Conrad and 

 others a declivis, if they had carefully examined many specimens. 



Art. VTL — Oil the eniploytnent of Uvularia perfoliata as a 

 remedy for Poisoned Woiuids ; by Benjamin Horner Coates, 

 M. D., Senior physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital. 



Read before the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Aug. 14, 1838, as a 

 communication, not intended for their Journal. 



While at Pottsville, in July, 1838, I was called upon to visit 

 a girl about five years of age, alleged to have been bitten by a rat- 

 tlesnake, but as it afterwards appeared, probably by a copper-head, 

 (Trigonocephalus contortrix. ) When I saw the patient, three hours 

 had elapsed ; but the parent, an intelligent man, stated that the 

 pain produced by the bite had greatly abated under the applica- 

 tion of a plant obtained from the forest, and applied bruised and 

 moistened with salted vinegar. Although crushed, the plant ap- 

 peared on inspection, to be the Uvularia perfoliata ; and its identity 

 was afterwards verified by fresh specimens obtained for me by a 



