•362     SARRACENIA  PURPUREA,  A  REMEDY  FOR  SMALL  POX. 
nearly  allied  to  the  tints  sometimes  obtained  from  mere  traces 
of  strychnine  as  to  render  it  desirable  that  this  color-test  should 
be  remarked  upon.* 
The  degree  of  attention  just  now  bestowed  upon  the  Ameri- 
can remedies  of  the  Eclectics,  is  my  apology  for  noticing  this 
alkaloid  in  the  incomplete  manner  which  I  have  here  ventured 
to  do,  before  I  have  had  sufficient  opportunity  of  studying  its 
composition,  or  of  presenting  a  formula  for  the  acceptance  of 
chemists.  Still,  as  supplementing  the  paper  of  Professor  Bent- 
ley  upon  Hydrastis  canadensis,  I  hope  this  notice  may  not  be 
without  interest  even  in  its  present  form. 
[Since  transmitting  the  foregoing  paper  to  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society,  I  have  had,  through  the  kindness  of  Professor  Bent- 
ley,  an  opportunity  of  seeing  an  essay  on  Hydrastis  canadensis, 
by  Durand,  which  appeared  in  the  American  "Journal  of 
Pharmacy,"  vol.  xxiii.  v.  112,  (1851.)  Durand's  examination 
of  this  root  is  not  very  satisfactory.  He  appears  to  have  over- 
looked the  presence  of  berberine  altogether,  but  seems  to  have 
obtained  crystals,  which  were  probably  hydrastine,  and  noted 
some  few  of  their  properties  ;  yet  he  says  he  is  in  doubt  as  to 
their  nature,  his  experiments  not  being  sufficiently  conclusive  to 
enable  him  to  pronounce  thereon.  I  was  not  aware  there  had 
been  any  previous  notice  of  this  substance  until  my  attention 
was  called  to  Durand's  Essay  by  Professor  Bentley,  and  it  is  re- 
markable that  so  promising  a  body  should  not  have  been  fur- 
ther examined,  during  a  period  of  more  than  ten  years. — J.  D.  P.] 
— Lond.  Pharm.  Jour.  May,  1,  1862* 
THE  SARRACENIA  PURPUREA,  A  REMEDY  FOR  SMALL- POX. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Medical  Times  : — 
Sir  : — You  have  by  this  time,  in  all  probability,  heard  some- 
thing of  an  extraordinary  discovery  for  the  cure  of  small-pox, 
by  the  use  of  44  Sarracenia  purpurea,"  or  Indian  Cup,  a  native 
plant  of  Nova  Scotia.  I  would  beg  of  you,  however,  to  give 
full  publicity  to  the  astonishing  fact,  that  this  same  humble  bog- 
*  The  addition  of  chlorine  water  to  solutions  of  hydrastine  salts,  gives 
rise  to  an  appearance  of  blue  fluorescence,  comparable  to  that  seen  in  acid 
solutions  of  quinine. 
