ON EUPATORIUM PERFOLIATUM. 
207 
and is more generally diffused than any of its numerous congeners. 
Though not possessed of much external beauty to recommend it to 
the notice of the casual observer, yet, the manner of its inflores- 
cence and the connate or perfoliate character of its leaves, serve 
unmistakeably to distinguish it. 
In the fresh state, the leaves, especially when rubbed between 
the fingers, have a peculiar, not. disagreeable odor, which is lost 
to a great extent in the process of desiccation. The flowers, also, 
when recent, are agreeably aromatic, but in their dried condition 
they possess little or none of their peculiar aroma. 
Though Boneset, like too many of our indigenous remedies, is 
but seldom called into requisition by the medical practitioner, for 
the cure of disease, yet, its very general employment in domestic 
practice, and the reputation which it has acquired in many sec- 
tions of the country, seem to warrant the assertion, that it is de- 
serving of more confidence than has hitherto been reposed in its 
virtues by the profession. 
The taste of Eupatorium is peculiar, quite bitter and somewhat 
persistent. It unites the properties of a tonic with those of a 
diaphoretic, expectorant and emetic, and it has also been supposed 
to possess anti-intermittent virtues; and, indeed, it has been re- 
marked by a physician of considerable eminence, that " it is not 
improbable that a principle, similar in properties to quinine, will 
yet be separated from it." Though I do not coincide in this 
opinion, yet, I am induced to believe that it contains some prin- 
ciple, sui generis, to which its tonic and emetic property is due. 
Its peculiar virtues are at present thought to reside in a bitter 
extractive, but this is a sort of generic term, too extensively ap- 
plied to the active principles of plants, and unworthy the name 
of a distinct principle. 
With a view of determining the presence of an active principle, 
and, if possible, of obtaining it in an isolated form, I instituted a 
series of experiments, which, although unsuccessful as regards the 
separation of a principle to which the name Eupatorin would be 
applicable, may yet throw some light upon the proximate con- 
stituents of the plant in question. 
Expt. 1. — Four ounces (troy) of dried Eupatorium, deprived of 
stems, were coarsely powdered and subjected to displacement with 
cold water, until one pint of a reddish brown infusion was ob- 
