NEW AMERICAN REMEDIES. 
314 
By the application of solution of ammonia to a clean transverse section of the 
root, the cortical portion was rendered somewhat reddish-brown, and the wood 
became yellowish; the pith alone remaining unaltered. Sulphuric acid , applied in 
like manner, caused the regions of the root to be more evident, and all of them, 
except the pith, to assume a yellowish colour. By adding nitric acid all the parts 
became more evident, and all outside the pith, which was unaltered, assumed a 
reddish-brown tint; and hydrochloric acid , applied in like manner, produced no 
change in the medulla, but rendered the wood slightly yellow, and the cortical 
portion dark yellowish-brown. 
Medicinal Properties and Uses. —In the ‘ American Journal of Materia 
Medica,’ the following notice of its medicinal properties and uses is given :*— 
“Dr. Butler says: 4 What I particularly wish to call attention to is the fact 
that a remedy exists which has been successfully employed for removing calculi 
after they have been formed. The effect the remedy seemed capable of produ¬ 
cing is removing, by its own specific action, from the bladder such deposits as 
may be contained in that viscus, provided they are small enough to pass the 
urethra. It has seemed also to have the power of relieving the excruciating 
pain attendant on the passage of a calculus through the ureter. Whether this 
is dependent upon any anodyne property which the remedy may possess, or upon 
its action in removing the cause by promoting the discharge of the calculus, I 
know not, but think most likely on the latter. The power of curing stone in 
the bladder does not appear to be claimed for it. It is only while the deposits 
are small, when in that form of disease known as gravel, that it is an efficient 
remedy ; then, by removing the nuclei, which, if allowed to remain in the organ, 
would increase in size and form stone, the disease is averted. Employed at this 
stage of the disease, it has proved beneficial in nearly every instance, and as 
many as 120 calculi have been known to come from a person under its use. In 
an overdose it produces unpleasant symptoms, such as dizziness of the head, op¬ 
pression of the chest, etc.’ Dr. Monkur, of Baltimore, says: ‘ I regard the 
hydrangea, in properly selected cases, as sure in its remedial acjency as we may 
express of any other medical substance. ’ ” In the hospital, he directed its use in 
mucous irritation of the bladder in aged people, chronic gleet, and, in a very 
difficult condition to cure, the prostate mucous emissions, and the report was 
favourable to its use. Dr. Atlee, of Philadelphia, publishes an account of a case 
in the hands of Dr. D. Horsley, where the patient passed a stone the size of an 
ordinary marble. Dr. Bates, of Ne|p Lebanon Springs, has lately treated 
several cases of lithiasis with the hydrangea, and with the best success. In each 
case a number of calculi passed from the patients upon the use of this agent.” 
A number of other favourable notices of the beneficial operation of hydrangea 
might be given from American publications, but we have quoted sufficient to 
show that, it is a remedial agent which, to say the least of it, is well worthy of 
a trial in this country. 
Administration, Preparations, and Doses. —The best mode of adminis¬ 
tering hydrangea—that which was adopted originally by Dr. Butler, and which 
is now general in Philadelphia—is in the form of a kind of fluid extract, pre¬ 
pared as follows:— 
Fluid Extract of Hydrangea. —Take of root of Hydrangea, sliced and 
well bruised, two pounds ; water ten pints. Boil to three pints, strain, and add 
thirty-two fluid ounces of honey, and then boil further to a pint and a half. 
This is the original receipt of Dr. Butler. Parrish recommends the following 
modified formula for its preparation :—Take of Hydrangea one pound; water, 
five pints. Boil the root in successive portions of water for a long time; mix 
this with thirty-two fluid ounces of honey , and further evaporate to a pint and 
* Anier. Journ. Mat. Med., vol. iii. p. 52. 
