NAT. ORDER. — CONVOLVULACE^. 
69 
it is indeed one of our most useful purgatives. The ancients em 
ployed it as an external application, in the form of poultices, in 
cases of Sciatica, and for the removal of indurated tumors, sca- 
bies, &c. ; but this practice is now wisely laid aside, to make way 
for more effectual modes of treatment. It is now only employed 
as an internal remedy, and as it is an article possessing powerful 
purgative qualities, and one which can be relied on, it may be em- 
ployed in any cases requiring such remedies. In people of indo- 
lent habits, who generally have constipated bowels ; and in children 
to remove any foeculent accumulations, it will be found highly ser- 
viceable ; or when combined with some other active vegetable 
cathartic, like the Podopliyllum peltatum, (May Apple,) it relieves 
that inactivity in the function of the liver, which is often connected 
with worms, and which are sometimes very effectually removed. 
This compound proves equally serviceable in dropsical patients, 
being a powerful hydragogue. It is necessary to combine it with 
some article, to prevent its griping, as aromatics, or sugar, par- 
ticularly when it is administered to children. Inflammatory dis- 
orders are sometimes very much increased, and irritable and ex- 
citable habits occasionally injured by it. It needs no corx-ector ; 
though for this purpose it has been exposed to the fumes of burn- 
ing sulphur ; but we thus only lessen its activity. When scam- 
mony has undergone this operation, it is called diagrydium. 
Since the time of Boerhaave, it has been considered a safe, 
though stimulating cathartic, and is frequently given uncombined 
with other articles, without producing tormina, or an excessive 
discharge. It is certainly a brisk purge, and is usually given in 
cold, phlegmatic constitutions. The dose in powder, is from eight 
to twenty grainy which may be given two or three times a day. 
