EXPECTORANTS. 91 
broken a bright red juice is exuded. From the root arises a 
short sheath, encircling the stalks, which are long and slender, 
with a groove running lengthwise. The folded leaves 
envelope the flower-bud, and roll back as it expands. The 
leaf is foliated, usually seven in number, one only on a stalk. 
The flowers. are white, with yellow-tinged petals. It is 
reckoned one of the most beautiful spring flowers in America. 
We think it merits a place in our illustrations. It is a good 
medicine to use where an expectorant is required. The 
decoction of the dried root broken small is half an ounce to 
the pint, sweetened. As it is very strong, a table-spoonful 
will be a sufficiently large dose for an expectorant. Dr. 
Beach gives the following; as. the properties of this valuable 
medicine :— 
‘The root 1s efficacious in bleeding of the lungs, croup, 
scarlet fever, jaundice, &. We also use it in the form of 
snuff for the cure of polypus in the nose, and with other articles 
in pulmonary diseases ; also in the form of extract; and the 
powdered root an escharotic in foul ulcers.”’ 
Dr. Woodruff, a Botanic physician in Orange County, 
N. Y., informs me that he has recently had considerable 
practice in malignant scarlet fever which has prevailed as an 
epidemic in that section, and that he has treated the disease 
with remarkable success bythe administration of mild vegetable 
emetics, purgatives, and diaphoretics, but the most signal 
benefit was derived from the blood-root, used in the following 
manner: Blood-root, pulverised, twenty to thirty grains, or a 
level teaspoonful in halfa pint of boiling water. Let it settle, 
strain off the clear, sweeten it with honey: dose a teaspoonful 
for a child from two to four years; repeat every hour if the 
child can bear it. If the surface gets broken wash the parts 
with the same infusion. The Doctor further states that 
the virtues of the root are too little known. He uses it in 
bilious, hepatic, and pulmonary affections, as an expectorant, 
deobstruent, tonic, and antiseptic, creating a healthy action 
of the biliary organs and stomach. 
