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REMARKS  ON  ASCLEPTAS  VERTICILLATA. 
in  connection  with  its  sweetish  taste  and  greater  solubility,  led 
to  the  detection  of  its  identity  with  sugar  of  milk  or  lactine. 
M.  Blengini  observes,  that  the  cost  of  cream  of  tartar  is  to 
that  of  sugar  of  milk  as  425  to  195,  and  hence  the  reason  of  its 
employment. — -QHornale  di  farmica,  $c,  di  Torino,  and  Repert. 
de  Pharm. 
REMARKS  ON  ASCLEPIAS  VERTICILLATA,  AS  A  CURE  FOR  THE 
BITES  OF  VENOMOUS  SNAKES  AND  INSECTS. 
By  James  C.  Harris,  M*.D.,  Wetumpka,  Ala. 
This  plant,  more  familiarly  known  in  this  vicinity  as  snake 
weed,  or  Fitzpatriekana,  may  generally  be  found  growing  in  a 
light  grey  or  red  soil,  upon  the  uplands,  throughout  the  States  of 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  and  in  some 
portions  of  Georgia,  Louisiana  and  Florida.  It  fiowTers  throughout 
the  months  of  July  and  August,  and  may  be  readily  found  in 
the  above  localities  where  the  forest  growth  is  scrubby  oak  and 
hickory,  or  in  the  pine  barrens  among  the  white  oak  runners. 
It  has  a  succession  of  white  flowers  from  an  eighth  to  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  in  length,  each  one  resembling  almost  exactly  the  tooth 
of  a  snake.  It  is  perennial,  and  varies  in  height  from  15  inches 
to  two  feet,  with  a  fibrous  root  and  jointed  stem. 
[The  following  specific  description  is  taken  from  Eaton's  Botany,  viz : 
!t  Asclepias  verticillata,  Miehaux.  (Dwarf  milk  weed,  flowers  green  and 
purple  and  white,  blooms  in  July),  stem  erect,  very  simple,  marked  with 
lines  and  small  pubescence ;  leaves  very  narrow  linear,  straight,  glabrous, 
whorled,  scattered  ;  horn  of  the  nectary  exsert. — Ed.  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.] 
Dr.  Harris  observes  that  this  plant  was  first  introduced  as  a 
cure  for  snake  bites  in  Pike  County,  Alabama,  in  1824,  by 
Caldwell  Eastis,  a  white  man,  who  had  resided  with  the  Choctaws, 
Cherokees  and  Creek  Indians  for  forty  years  preceding,  who 
taught  him  its  value  in  the  year  1804-5  when  he  first  witnessed 
its  effects  on  a  horse  bitten  by  a  rattlesnake.  The  usual  manner 
of  preparation  and  administration  is  as  follows :  Take  and* 
slightly  bruise  five  or  six  of  the  entire  recently  gathered  plants, 
(stem,  top  and  roots)  put  them  in  a  pint  of  spring  water  or  sweet 
milk,  and  boil  down  to  three  gills.  This  is  the  ordinary  dose  for 
an  adult,  and  is  diminished  proportionably  for  children,  and 
