90 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
and England, who have extended their researches to many of 
the indigenous plants of this country. The occupation of this 
ground, would seem legitimately to appertain to Americans; 
and may it not be hoped that they will be aroused to exertion 
by the example of their transatlantic brethren, and even be 
prompted to manifest some jealousy, when a display of na- 
tive resources originates elsewhere than at home? Why may 
not American research add many new and important additions 
to the already large number of vegeto-chemical facts ? 
The plant which I have chosen as the subject of this essay, 
having so recently been made the subject of investigation (see 
Journal, vol. ix., p. 181,) by a graduate of the College of 
Pharmacy, I deem it necessary to state the motives that have 
induced me to bring it again to notice. The botanical 
characters and sensible properties of the American helle- 
bore being so analogous to those of the white hellebore of 
Europe, have led to the supposition that its medicinal 
properties were the same, and depended upon the alkaloid 
which has been detected in the latter. Two analyses have 
been made, which have been productive of only conjec- 
tural results; they did not clearly demonstrate the existence 
of this principle, although they rendered its presence highly 
probable; and had the experimentalists been more plentifully 
supplied with material upon which to operate, it is likely that 
little would have been left to a successor. With the view 
of confirming the information that has already been elicited, 
and, if possible, of rendering it still more complete, at the 
same time that the correctness of the law will be tested which 
imposes uniformity of chemical composition upon plants allied 
by physical resemblances, have the experiments reported in 
the latter part of this essay been undertaken. 
