GINSENG. 13 



Chinese prepare it as medicine, but 1 suppose much of it is used 

 in a tea form as well as a tincture As it is so valuable a medicine, 

 their mode of administration has been kept a secret for thousands 

 of years. It must have some medical value of great power, or the 

 Chinese could not pay the price for it which they do. It has been 

 thought heretofore that the Chinese were a superstitious people 

 and used ginseng through ignorance, but as we get more light on 

 the medical value of the plant, the plainer it becomes that it is we, 

 the Americans, who have been and are still in ignorance as to its 

 real value. We believe the time not far off when it will be 

 recognized as a medical plant, and its great medical value be made 

 known to the world." 



BY. J. Q. A. CLOWES, M. D. 



"For several years past I have been experimenting with gin- 

 seng as a medical agent, and of late I have prescribed, or rather 

 added it to the treatment of some cases of rheumatism. I remem- 

 ber one instance in particular of a middle-aged man who had gone 

 the rounds of the neighborhood doctors and failed of relief, when 

 he employed me. After treating him for several weeks and fail- 

 ing to entirely relieve him, more especially the distress in bowels 

 and back, I concluded to add ginseng to his treatment. After 

 using the medicine, he returned, saying the last bottle had served 

 him so well that he wanted it filled with the same medicine as be- 

 fore. I attribute the curative properties of ginseng in rheumatism 

 to stimulating the healthy action of the gastricjuices, causing a 

 healthy flow of the digestive fluids of the stomach, thereby neutral- 

 izing the extra secretion of acid that is carried to the nervous 

 membranes of the body joints, causing the inflammatory condition 

 incident to rheumatism. 



