302 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
emetic in Boneset, renders these medicines of great value , 
and those of them not hitherto introduced into the Universal 
Materia Medica highly deserve to be so. I consider the 
Wild-cherry bark as among the most efficient remedies in the 
tuberculous diathesis, and not inferior to any other medi- 
cine in the treatment of consumption itself. Our catalogue 
of aromatics is also copious, including, among others, Angeli- 
ca, Calamus, Sassafras, Hedeoma or Pennyroyal, Common 
marjoram, Partridge-berry, and Spice-wood or Laurus ben- 
zoin. Of stimulants we have Turpentine and its volatile oil; 
of narcotics, Stramonium and Dulcamara; of antispasmodics, 
Dracontium and Cimieifuga. Our emetics, if we leave ipeca- 
cuanha out of the question, are inferior to those of no other 
country. Lobelia, though so much much abused by empirics, 
is possessed of highly valuable properties; Gillenia is suppos- 
ed to resemble the famous Brazilian root in its action ; and 
Sanguinaria conjoins with its emetic properties others of a pe- 
culiar nature, which are said to render it especially useful in 
certain forms of disease. Among the cathartics, we have substi- 
tutes for several of those imported, as in Cassia Marilandica 
for Senna, in the Extract of Butternut for Rhubarb, and in 
Podophyllum for Jalap. We are not wanting in diaphoretics 
or diuretics, and as an expectorant our Seneka holds, in my 
estimation, the very highest rank. As epispastics we have se- 
veral species of Cantharis not inferior in virtues to the Span- 
ish fly, and the Cantharis Nuttalli, of the far west, will pro- 
bably some time come into extensive use; as it is said to be 
abundant, and has the advantage of equalling if it does not ex- 
ceed the foreign insect in magnitude. Our native Turpentine 
and its volatile oil, together with the Hemlock pitch, are good 
rubefacients; Slippery-elm bark is an excellent demulcent and 
emollient; and perhaps in no part of the world are there vege- 
table anthelmintics more efficacious than Spigelia and Cheno- 
podium. In this enumeration I have not attempted to exhaust 
the whole catalogue of native medicines. My object was only 
to show that our resources are ample, by calling attention to a 
few of the more prominent substances, the virtues of which are 
