364 
CHLORIDE  OF  LIME  AS  AN  INSECTICIDE. 
or  funnel,  like  the  bowl  of  a  tobacco-pipe,  terminating  with  a 
hood-shaped  appendage  not  unlike  an  Indian  squaw's  cap.  The 
flowers,  with  their  hard  involuted  crenate  calyx,  and  fine  sessile 
segments,  like  the  yellow  water-lily,  deep  crimson  stigmata,  and 
corresponding  stamina,  in  form  and  appearance  are  very  remark- 
able. All  of  the  tribe  inhabit  marshy  grounds.  The  "  Sarra- 
cenia  Purpurea  "  is  the  most  common  species,  and  like  all  the 
beautiful  things  of  Providence,  widely  diffused  from  Hudson's 
Bay  to  the  State  of  North  Carolina.*  The  root  consists  of 
numerous  short  radicles,  fibrous  and  stringy,  which,  when  pow- 
dered, have  a  very  faint  and  agreeable  aroma,  with  a  taste  very 
like  the  willow  alkaloid,  or  salicin.  The  dose  of  the  medicine 
— the  powdered  root — is  about  a  dessert-spoonful,  simmered  in 
a  pint  of  water  down  to  half  a  pint;  this  is  divided  into  two 
doses,  one  taken  immediately,  the  other  in  six  hours  ;  no  sugar 
should  be  given  with  it.  The  only  functional  influence  it  seems 
to  have,  is  in  promoting  the  flow  of  urine,  which  soon  becomes 
limpid  and  abundant,  and  this  is  owing  perhaps  to  the  defecated 
poison  or  changed  virus  of  the  disease  exclusively  escaping 
through  that  channel.  The  "  Sarracenia,"  I  take  reason  to  be- 
lieve a  powerful  antidote  for  allcontagiousdiseases,  lepra,measles, 
varicella,  plague,  contagious  typhus,  and  even  syphilis,  also  a 
remedy  in  jaundice.  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think  it  will 
one  day  play  an  important  part  in  all  these.    Yours,  etc., 
Frederick  W.  Morris,  M.  D., 
Resident  Physician  of  the  Halifax  Visiting  Dispensary. 
—Am.  Med.  Times,  May  24,  1862. 
CHLORIDE  OF  LIME  AS  AN  INSECTICIDE. 
In  scattering  chloride  of  lime  on  a  plank  in  a  stable,  all 
kinds  of  flies,  but  more  especially  biting  flies,  were  quickly  got 
rid  of.  Sprinkling  beds  of  vegetables  with  even  a  weak  solu- 
tion of  this  salt,  effectually  preserves  them  from  the  attacks  of 
*  [The  Sarracenia  Purpurea  grows  in  the  swampy  lands  of  New  Jersey, 
and  is  called  the  "  Pitcher  plant,"  and  "  Side-saddle  flower  Griffith 
does  not  mention  it  in  his  "  Medical  Botany."  Various  southern  species 
exist,  and  two  of  these  are  noticed  in  the  U.  S.  Dispensatory. — Ed.  Am. 
Jour.  Pharm.] 
