72 
BUTTERNUT. 
The medicinal properties of Butternut bark have long since been 
proved by several eminent physicians of the United States, and among 
others, by Doctor Cutler"^. An extract in water, or even a decoction 
sweetened with honey, is acknowledged to be one of the best cathar- 
tics afforded by the materia medica ; its purgative operation is always 
sure, and unattended, in the most delicate constitutions, with pain 
or irritation. Experience has shown that it produces the best effects 
in many cases of dysentery. It is commonly given in the form of 
pills, and to adults, in doses from half a scruple to a scruple. It is not, 
however, in general use, except in the country, where many of the farmers’ 
wives provide a small store of it in the spiing, for the wants of their families 
and of their neighbors. They obtain it by boiling the bark entire in water, 
till the liquid is reduced by evaporation, to a thick viscid substance, which 
is almost black. This is a faulty process ; the exterior bark, or the dead 
part which covers the cellular integument, should first be taken off, for, by 
continued boiling, it becomes charged with four fifths of the liquid, already 
enriched with extractive matter. I have also seen this bark successfully 
employed as a revulsive, in inflammatory opthalmias and in the toothache : 
a piece of it soaked in warm water, is applied in these cases to the back of 
the neck. In the country, it is sometimes employed for dying wool of a 
dark brown color ; but the bark of the Black Walnut is preferable for this 
purpose. 
On a live tree, the cellular tissue, when first exposed, is of a pure 
white, in a moment it changes to a beautiful lemon color, and soon after to 
a deep brown. 
If the trunk of the Butternut is pierced in the month which precedes the 
unfolding of the leaves, a pretty copious discharge ensues of a slightly 
sugary sap, from which, by evaporation, sugar is obtained of a quality in- 
ferior to that of the Sugar Maple. 
Although the Butternut, as has been seen, possesses useful properties, I 
do not think it sufficiently valuable, either in the arts or for fuel, to recom- 
mend its introduction into the forests of the old continent ; it should find 
place only in our pleasure grounds. 
PLATE XXXI. 
Jl leaf of half its natural size. Fig. 1, .R nut with its husk. Fig. 2, A nut 
without its husk. 
* [Previously, by Dr. Rush, in the war of the Revolution; the officinal extract is the only one 
now used by practitioners.] 
