336  Notes  on  Some  Old  Remedies.  {^""'juiyaS""^ 
Weber  (Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1884,  p.  7),  who  determined  the 
presence  of  tannin,  a  little  yellow  coloring  matter,  a  small  quantity  of 
bitter  extractive,  chlorophyll,  and  much  bassorin-like  mucilage.  A 
chemical  investigation  of  the  bitter  species  of  Luffa  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  made ;  but  it  is  very  likely  that  the  bitter  constituent 
represents  the  diuretic,  cathartic  and  emetic  properties,  for  which  many 
plants  of  the  order  of  Cucurbitacese  are  noted. 
NOTES  ON  SOME  OLD  REMEDIES.^ 
By  Johx  M.  Maisch. 
It  is  well  known  that  many  remedies,  being  in  the  course  of  time 
replaced  by  others,  fall  into  disuse,  sometimes  for  a  long  period,  until^ 
through  accident  or  from  other  causes,  they  again  attract  the  attention 
of  physicians  and  are  released  from  obscurity,  either  to  find  an  appar- 
ently permanent  place  among  officinal  drugs,  or  soon  to  be  consigned 
again  among  the  obsolete  articles.  Such  reintroductions  of  old  reme- 
dies are  frequently  heralded  as  new  discoveries,  and,  in  some  cases, 
such  a  claim  holds  good  for  special  therapeutic  applications,  or  for  the 
chemical  and  physiological  investigation  of  the  active  constituents.  In 
most  cases  it  will  be  at  least  of  interest,  from  time  to  time,  to  collect 
recent  statements  or  observations  on  remedies  which  were  used  by  our 
forefathers,  and  for  this  reason  the  following  brief  record  of  the  recent 
use  of  more  or  less  forgotten  medicinal  plants  is  made. 
Potentilla  canadensis,  Linne,  popularly  know^n  as  cinquefoil,  five- 
finger  or  dry  strawberry,  and  common  in  grassy  places  throughout  a 
great  portion  of  North  America,  was  employed  over  a  hundred  years 
ago  as  a  vulnerary  and  as  an  astringent,  in  diarrhoea  and  hemor- 
rhages, both  internally  and  as  a  gargle.  More  recently  it  was  lauded 
in  chronic  catarrhs,  in  gonorrh(ea,  and  as  a  powerful  sudorific  (see 
Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1875,  p.  Ill);  and  during  the  past  year 
(Therap.  Gaz.,  Aug.,  1887),  Dr.  Sansom  Pope,  of  South  Carolina, 
stated  it  to  be  a  reliable  remedy  for  night-sweats,  an  infusion  of  the 
entire  plant  being  taken  ad  libitum,  and  that  it  is  in  use  among  the 
negroes  as  a.  domestic  remedy. 
Capsella  Bursa-pastoris,  Moench,  is  known  as  shepherd's  pm-se,  and 
has  established  itself  in  most  countries  as  a  weed  in  fields  and  in  waste 
1  Read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  Titusville, 
June  13. 
