ON HYDRANGEA ARBORESCENS. 
13 
I have advised this remedy in other cases of tic doloureux, and 
it has had equal success in some, while in others it has failed. I 
have also given it in cases of tremor, from the abuse of alcoholic 
drink, with happy effect, and in one case of great depression of 
spirits produced by dyspepsia. As to the after effect of this ner- 
vine, my observation corresponds with that of Dr. Cleaveland. 
Respectfully, William Stabler. 
Alexandria, Virginia, IQthmo. 18th, 1851. 
ON HYDRANGEA ARBORESCENS. 
By Joseph Laidley, of Richmond, Virginia. 
Few subjects of medical interest have claimed more of the 
time and talents of the medical profession, than has the formation 
and removal of stone in the bladder ; and of the numerous agents 
which from time to time have arisen into notice as solvents or 
preventives, nearly all have fallen into merited disrepute, and 
left the field almost wholly to the surgeon. It is not so much 
with the disease, as viewed in reference to the presence of stone 
in the bladder, that the experimental therapeutist has cause to 
hope for success in finding a remedy, as in combating and 
removing that peculiar diathesis upon which the formation of 
stone supervenes, and thus preventing that terrible necessity of a 
resort to the lithotriptor or the gorget. 
The object of the present paper is to call attention to one of 
our indigenous plants, the Hydrangea arborescens, in so far as 
its botanical and chemical characteristics are concerned. The 
root of this plant was first used with great success by Dr. E. 
Butler, a missionary to the Cherokee Indians — a situation where, 
from the liability of the Indians to stone in the bladder, a wide 
field for testing its virtues was afforded. Dr. S. Worcester Butler, 
of Burlington, K. J., son of the missionary, introduced it to the 
notice of the medical profession — (New Jersey Medical Reporter, 
Oct. 1850 p. 44—47.) Dr. E. Butler employed it in the form of 
a syrup, made either with sugar or honey ; Mr. E. Parrish of 
Philadelphia prepares a fluid extract of it, which is probably the 
