Sassafras. 127 



secure from the attack of worms : this advantage is attributed 

 to its odor, which it preserves as long as ii is sheltered from 

 the sun and rain. Bedsteads made of it are said to be never 

 infested with insects. But for these purposes the sassafras 

 wood is not in habitual use, and is only occasionally employed. 

 For fuel, it is held in little esteem, and it is only in the cities 

 of the Southern States, which are not, like those of the north, 

 abundantly furnished with fuel, that it is brought into the 

 market : it is considered as wood of the third quality. Its 

 bark contains a considerable portion of air, and snaps while 

 burning like that of the chesnut. 



The medicinal virtues of the sassafras are so well proved, 

 that during more than two hundred years, since its hrst intro- 

 duction into materia medica, it has maintained the reputation 

 of an excellent sudorific, which may be advantageously em- 

 ployed in cutaneous aftections, in chronic rheumatism, and in 

 siphilitic diseases of long standing. In the last case it is al- 

 ways joined with lignum vita3 and sarsaparilla. The wood is 

 slightly aromatic and somewhat acrimonious, depending on 

 a resin and an essential oil, but the smell and taste which 

 are peculiar to the vegetable are more sensible in the young 

 branches, and incomparably more so in the bark of the roots ; 

 this part of the tree therefore should always be preferred, for 

 the wood appears to contain but a small degree of the qual- 

 ities assigned it, and even this it loses after being long kept. 

 From the bark of the roots, which is thick and sanguineous, 

 the greatest quantity of essential oil is extracted : this oil, after 

 long exposure to the cold, is said to deposit very beautiful 

 crystals. The flowers of this tree when fresh have likewise a 

 weak aromatic odor. A great number of people in the United 

 Slates consider them as stomachic and efficacious in purifying 

 the blood ; and for this purpose, during a fortnight in the 

 spring, they drink an infusion of them with a little sugar, in 

 the manner of tea. The dried leaves and the young branches 

 contain a mucilaginous principle nearly resembling that of 

 the ochro. They are used by some people to thicken their 

 pottage. An agreeable beverage may be made by boiling 

 the young shoots in water, to which a certain quantity of mo- 

 lasses is added, and the whole is left to ferment : this beer is 

 considered as a very salutary drink during the summer. Mu- 

 cilage of sassafras pith is peculiarly mild and lubricating, and 

 has been used with much benefit in dysentery and catarrh, 

 and particularly as a lotion in the inflammatory stages of the 

 ophthalmia. But except as a diaphoretic the powers of sas- 

 safras are very doubtful. It certainly has no antisyphi itic 

 properties. — Sylva Americana. 



