Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

78

Materia Medica

Astringents

hospital, the injection was Ʒiv [4 drams] to ℥viij [8 ounces] of Aqua font.

Yellow Gum Resin. This is nearly a pure gum. It is obtained from Botony Bay. It is now the fashionable astringent of London. It has not yet found its way into the practice of the American Physician. Terra Japonica or Catechu. The name terra Japonica is verry improper for Catechu is a vegitable inspissated juice. Dr Cullen says it is a tolerable powerfull astringent and he has often experienced its effects in Diarrheas and Dysentaries, he has never used it in Fluor Albus. I have but little experience in this medicine and am inclined to think it of little worth, its virtues are equally extracted by alkahol and water, it has no disagreeable smell or taste, it is never pure as brought to us. Uva Ursi. The whortleberry is the arbutus, Uva Ursi of Linneus, this plant is common to the Old and New world, it grows in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, it is an evergreen trailing on the ground and verry similar to our hustlebeery, to which it is verry properly allied, that it possesses a considerable degree of astringency we infer from its taste, and from the black colour produced by the sulfate of Iron. It has an agreeable bitter and when