14 
ON HYDRANGEA ARBORESCENS. 
best form for administering it. The plant has been employed 
with, we believe, considerable success by Dr. John Neill of Phila- 
delphia, and by several other physicians. 
" The effect of the plant," says Dr. S. W. Butler, N is to remove 
by its own specific action on 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 alleviating 
the excruciating pain attendant on the passage of a calculus 
through the ureter." 
It will be observed that the power of curing stone in the bladder 
is not claimed for it ; it is only while the deposits are small, when 
in that stage of the disease known as gravel, that it is an efficient 
remedy ; then by removing the nucleus, which if allowed to remain 
in the organ should increase in size and form stone, the disease 
is averted, and when employed at this stage, it is said to have 
proved beneficial in every instance, and " as many as 120 calculi 
have been known to come from one person under the use of this 
medicine." (iV. J. Med. Rep.') 
The desire of investigating the chemical constitution of a remedy 
which promises to be so valuable, induced the writer, some time 
ago, to undertake a proximate analysis of the root, a portion of 
which Dr. Butler kindly placed in his possession, but the quantity 
proved too small to afford satisfactory results, subsequently 
another supply was obtained from an examination of which the 
present results were chiefly drawn. 
Hydrangea arborescens is an elegant indigenous shrub, 
known throughout the Southern and Middle States, where also it 
flourishes, growing abundantly on the sides of hills and mountains, 
and along the banks of streams : it is quite abundant in the Sus- 
quehanna and Schuylkill vallies. The flowers are often met with 
in boquets in the markets of Philadelphia. The root is the part 
that has been employed : it is formed of numerous radicles, some- 
times not larger than a goose quill, sometimes half an inch or 
more in diameter, and these run often to a considerable length. 
They proceed from a caudex which sends upwards numerous diver- 
gent branches, which attain the height of from three to six feet. 
The root, when fresh, is very succulent, and can easily be cut, but 
when dry is very tough and resistant, for which reason Dr. Butler 
recommends that it should be cut up into short transverse sections 
