Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

533

heat or fermentation; — The best time to give it, is in the evening just before going to bed. Dose for an adult is a table spoonfull full from 12. 6. Years old three tea spoons full — from 6. To 3. two tea spoons full, from 3 to 1. a teaspoonfull — This medicine was first prescribed by an aged and respectable Physician of Philadelphia with great success — and was singularly successfull at the Lazaretto when the Dysentary lately appeard among the troops stationed there — Operation = is first to purge, a day or two — and restore the bowels to their Natural State "August 18th 1815 Trenton True American"

* The senna is seldom used alone but maybe advantageously combined with the crystals of Tartar.

Rx Sulp. Tart. Potass. } Fol. Senna } aa Ʒiv [4 drams each]

add one pint of warm water let it simmer over a gentle fire, then sweeten it with a little brown sugar and give half a tea spoonfull every half hour untill it operates.

534

Materia Medica

Cathartics

is a Malignant Yellow Fever.

Silaquosa. The unbruised seed of the mustard to the extent of a tablespoon full is a good cathartic I found it usefull to me in regular gout, and it is also proper in chronic Rheumatism, in febris Alba or chlorosis it does not dispose the bowels to costiveness. I sometimes give a table spoonfull two or three times a day, and it does not produce any disagreeable effects on the stomach.

Assa Foetida. This is frequently a verry good purge in doses of from grs ij to V [2 to 5 grains] with delicate women.

Gum Guaicum. A watery solution of this is a good cathartic I have used it particularly in cases of Paralysis, the dose is a table spoonfull two or three times a day.

Senna. This plant is cultivated in Turkey, Syria and Persia, the leaves are disagreeable to the taste, and contain an essential Oil and Gum Resin, this is a safe purgative though it generally gripes a little, to prevent which we are in the habit of combining it with some aromatic or Neutral Salt, as Sal Glaub, Crem Tart.* [footnote back 1 page] &c.

Cassia Marylandica. This plant is indigenous to the Unted States and is a species of cassia Senna the dose is nearly the same, and in the present exigencies of Government requires our attention.

Senaka. This is a Cathartic, Diuretic, and Emetic, it is a cathartic in dicoction and is used in Croup and Dropsy.