Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

66

Materia Medica

Astringents

of explanation as I have seen them produce good effects even when they seem not to produce or exert any tonic power, they have been used in wounds and received the title of Vulneraries by some old authors, they are serviceable in old ulcers, Cortex Sinchoric, or bark given internally have the effect of disposing them to heal, they are used externally with the same good effect we may suppose they act by stimulating the parts into a more healthy action, to secrete good puss, and absorb the more fluid or watery parts. Dr Darwin says they produce costiveness as a general effect. I can positively assert they do not, on the contrary I have known them to excite intestinal evacuation. I can scarcely employ them as tonics, without combining Opium with them. Galls, Columbo, and Allum, very often purge. I shall now proceed to speak of the particular astringents, they have been divided by Dr Cullen into vegitable and mineral, the mineral astringents of Dr Cullen I shall transfer to my class of Tonics. Nature has been bountifull in bestowing a portion of astringency on all vegitables, even the roots and leaves of strawberry contain it, the astringent principle resides in greatest abundance in the bark of vegitables according to their botanical affinity, to this