DIURETICS, 717 
DANDELION (Taraxacvm.) 
This is the celebrated plant in which the common people 
of every land have faith. We have adopted it as our trade 
mark. As we give it in illustration there is no need to 
describe it, seeing also it is so well known; but there are 
many who confuse it with a plant not unlike it, namely, the 
Cape weed. The one point of difference that will alone prevent 
mistake is that the true dandelion has a hollow stem; the 
Cape weed has not, but its stem is jointed, while the dandelion 
is straight, and when ripe has a brownish shade. The 
dandelion root is brownish white, the Cape nearly white and 
not so large. It is more bitter than the other. On this 
account it is a tonic and can be taken by experimentalists 
without fear in reasonable doses. We would suggest 14 
ounces of the Cape weed root simmered in a pint and a half of 
water down to a pint, a wineglassful three times a day. Of 
the dandelion root, two ounces to the pint; dose, the 
same. ‘There are other preparations of it ; the expressed juice, 
dose, a tea- to a table-spoonful; the solid extract, a half to a 
teaspoonful. In this form it is made into pills with other 
ingredients to increase its laxative power. Then the roots are 
washed, cut up, dried, roasted and ground into coffee, or 
without roasting, the powdered roots make a very convenient 
and efficient way of taking the medicine. As the dandelion 
has been such a friend to us in our business, we may be 
excused if we are somewhat jubilant in its praise. Our 
feelings are akin to those of a young man in London who 
was thrown out of employment and reduced nearly to 
starvation point, when a good Samaritan started him in the 
baked potato business. He got along famously, some weeks. 
making as much as three pounds. Being a devout man and 
so much in love with his potatoes, he was surprised that he 
could not find them mentioned in the Bible, which he dearly 
loved to read. It is not too much to say that we have made 
millions of the dandelion pills. With the aid of machinery 
an assistant and myself turned out forty thousand in one day ; 
as for the coffee, tons of it have been manufactured by us. 
