
          393

three times a day.  Before asking about the century, he asked if I
knew the plant called "Conquer John" or "Conquer the earth".
I told him I didn't and that he should describe the plant to me.
He said "It grows in the mash [marsh?], it is about 2 ft. high, has
a <s>purp</s> blue flower shaped like a sugar-loaf about an inch long.
I couldn't think of any plant to answer the description.

This too was an excellent stomach remedy,  the root to
be steeped in Whiskey.  He then asked me, "Do you know
spick nard"?  I thought he meant spikenard (Aralia racemosa),
so described it to him, but he didn't remember seeing any dark
red berries.  I think, however, this an oversight on his part.
He said this was a good remedy for consumption.  The root to
be steeped in whiskey and a tablespoonful taken three times a 
day.  He told me of two cases cured by the spicknard which surely
<s>ougth</s> ought to convince <s> to be</s> the most skeptical.  One a boy
who was born with the consumption and "all he did was to take
his spicknard three times a day and it kept him alive and he lived
till he was nearly a hundred years old".  The other was about a 
woman living in Frederick, she was in the last stages of consumption
and was only a "frame" so thin, so her friends brought her to Balto. to see Dr. Smith,
        