310 
NEW AMERICAN REMEDIES. 
The Fourth General Meeting of this Society was held in the Grand Jury Room. 
Town Hall, on Tuesday evening, the 15th inst.; Mr. S. Parr, President, in the chair. 
The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 
The President announced that the course of lectures on Materia Medica, by Dr. 
Brookhouse, would commence early in January. He should have great pleasure 
in offering a prize of books to the student who paid the most attention; Mr. Parker, 
of Radford, would also present a prize to the second best. The President then said that 
the paper which would be read that evening by Dr. Charles Taylor, on the Diseases of 
the Eye, would be illustrated by diagrams, and by the Ghost Ophthalmoscope. This ap¬ 
paratus w r as one of the modern appliances of physical science for demonstrating the 
beautiful structure of the human eye, and by its aid many of the diseases incident to 
that important organ had recently been more minutely investigated. 
Dr. Charles Taylor, Honorary Surgeon to the Eye Dispensary, then proceeded to 
read his paper. It dealt with the optical defects of the human eye. Several neatly 
executed diagrams of the eye were exhibited on a black board, and the ophthalmoscope, 
referred to in the remarks of the President, was placed on a board near at hand. The 
lecture, which was entirely divested of technical terms, presented features of interest to 
all, more especially that portion devoted to a consideration of the proper methods of 
selecting spectacles in cases of aged, short, and oversight. The fractional calculations and 
mathematical formulae used for the purpose of selecting an accurately-adapted glass 
were extremely curious, and from the lecturer’s observations, it was apparent that they 
have not been properly understood until within the last few years. 
At the close of the lecture the President proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Taylor, 
which was carried unanimously. 
Mr. J. H. Atherton then read a short paper on the “ Solubility of Bismuth,” exhibit¬ 
ing phials of the preparation. He explained the process by which he had prepared it, 
which was founded on the experiments of Mr. Draper, of Dublin, and others, respecting 
the solubility of certain metallic oxides, in the citrates of the alkalies. 
Mr. Atherton had made several attempts before he succeeded in obtaining a prepara¬ 
tion which should be of the same strength as that prepared by Mr. Schacht, of 
Clifton. The ammonio-citrate of iron, he thought, was a preparation analogous to the 
soluble bismuth, and he hoped the latter would be of equal service to the medical pro¬ 
fession. 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
NEW AMERICAN REMEDIES. 
BY PROFESSOR BENTLEY, F.L.S., M.R.C.S. ENG., HONORARY FELLOW OF, AND 
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN, KING-’s COLLEGE, LONDON, ETC. 
{Continued from p. 216.) 
XIV. HYDRANGEA ARBORESCENS, LINN .—COMMON 
HYDRANGEA, SEVEN-BARKS. 
History.— The root of this plant appears to have been employed for ages 
among the Cherokee Indians, in North America, as a remedy for calculous and 
gravelly deposits in the bladder.* A knowledge of its virtues was first gained 
from the Indians by Dr. E. Butler, who resided amongst’ them for a long time 
as a missionary ; and we learn from his son, Dr. S. Worcester Butler, that he 
employed it with very great success in the treatment of calculous complaints, 
which are stated to be very common amongst them.f Various reports have since 
* See ‘ Report on the Medicinal Plants of the Cherokees,’ in Proc. Amer. Pliann. Assoc, for 
1859, p. 394. 
f ‘Hew Jersey Medical Reporter,’ Oct. 1850, p. 44; and Amer. Journ. Pliann., vol. xviii. 
1852, p. 13. 
