306  Utilization  of  Our  Own  Resources.  {Amju^r,1Sh5arm- 
"  During  the  early  part  of  the  war  I  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  railroad 
hospital  in  a  small  town  where  it  was  difficult  to  obtain  medicine  at 
almost  any  cost,  and  as  I  had  my  little  hospital  crowded  nearly  all 
the  time,  both  with  employees  of  the  road,  and  wounded  and  sick 
soldiers,  afflicted  with  various  diseases  and  all  kinds  of  wounds  and 
injuries,  and  being  also  engaged  in  general  practice,  it  naturally 
followed  that  my  mind  was  severely  taxed  in  order  to  supply  remedies 
and  substitutes  to  meet  the  demands  of  such  varied  practice.  I 
perused  my  dispensary  and  called  into  requisition  an  old  botanic 
practice  that  had  been  handed  down  as  a  relic  of  the  past,  but  from 
which  I  confess  to  have  received  valuable  aid  and  very  many  useful 
hints  in  regard  to  the  medical  virtues  of  our  native  plants.  I  give 
you  the  following  facts  from  a  record  I  kept  of  the  patients  treated, 
and  the  remedies  I  used,  and  the  principal  substances  I  resorted  to : 
"  Of  that  large  class  of  medicines,  so  useful  in  surgery  and  so 
much  in  demand  in  war  times,  called  antiseptics,  most  of  them,  I 
may  say,  have  been  discovered  and  appropriated  to  surgical  use  since 
our  war.  In  fact,  I  had  but  little  else  at  my  command  except  the 
cold-water  dressing  for  wounds.  From  experiment  I  learned  to 
improve  on  the  plain  old  method,  as  I  think,  by  employing  a  decoction 
of  red  oak  bark  added  to  the  water,  which  acted  as  a  disinfectant, 
and  by  its  stimulating  and  astringent  properties  promoted  the  healing 
process.  I  also  used  a  weak  solution  of  bicarbonate  of  soda,  which  I 
found  beneficial  in  the  suppurative  stages.  When  emollients  were 
indicated,  I  used  slippery  elm  bark  and  wahoo-root  bark,  and  solution 
of  common  salt  often  helped.  In  case  of  great  pain  I  employed 
poppy  heads,  nightshade,  and  stramonium  (Jimson  weed). 
For  Intermittent  Fever. 
"  I  had  a  number  of  cases  of  intermittent  fever.  I  would  give 
strong  boneset  tea,  warm,  and  until  free  vomiting  was  produced,  and 
as  a  substitute  for  quinine,  I  used,  during  the  intermissions,  butterfly 
root  or  pleurisy  root  tea,  which  would  nearly  always  cut  short  the 
febrile  state. 
"  Remittent  or  bilious  fevers  were  treated  much  the  same  way, 
except  that  I  invariably  gave  good  doses  of  mandrake  tea  in  the 
beginning.  White  ash  root  or  prickly  ash  root  were  often  given  in 
these  fevers  to  advantage,  using  always  the  butterfly  root  tea  in  the 
febrile  stage.    Virginia  snake  root,  yellow  root,  or  Sampson's  snake 
