ON THE ASCLEPIAS CURASSAVICA. 21 
aware of the powerful influence which the lunar phases, 
in conjunction with the solar heat, exert over the circula- 
tion of the sap. 
Might not the emetic principle be obtained in a detached 
form from the decoction or infusion of the root, or of the 
whole plant? or from the expressed juice ? and if so, might 
it not be made a profitable object of trade with those islands 
in which it is found in such inconvenient profusion ? These 
are questions calculated to repay the labour of solution. 
But it is not for its emetic properties alone that the As- 
clepias curassavica is entitled to attention. It is a power- 
ful astringent, and as such eminently serviceable in check- 
ing haemorrhages ; from which it has acquired, among the 
inhabitants of Jamaica, the name of the h loo d -flower. Dr. 
Barham illustrates this by the case of a gentleman who had 
been longsuffering from hemorrhoidal haemorrhage, for which 
all the ordinary routine of practice had been exhausted with- 
out effect, and his life was despaired of by his friends. " At 
last," as the doctor acquaints us, " he was advised to use 
this flower, which was immediately got (for they grow al- 
most everywhere) and bruised, and the juice pressed out," 
which was injected by a syringe, and effectually arrested 
the progress of the bleeding. 
He also found it equally effectual, as an internal remedy, 
in the cure of gonorrhea ; and mentions t wo cases in which 
lie employed it with the most satisfactory results. In the 
first of these cases he had exhibited every remedy he could 
think of during a space of twelve months, without affording 
ids patient the smallest relief. Baffled in all his attempts, 
he at length had recourse to the blood-weed, which he ad- 
ministered in the form of a decoction, made from the stems, 
leaves, and flowers, which was taken twice a day for about 
a week, when the discharge ceased, and never returned 
afterwards. In the second case, which from Dr. Barham's ac- 
count, appears to have been one of seminal weakness, rather 
than virulent gonorrhoea, he recommended to his patient, an 
