Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

148

Materia Medica

Tonics

Cullen used it with advantage in cutaneous affections of the Leprous kind.

Tanacetum. Or Tansey, this is a powerfull bitter, the less so than chamomile. Dr Black used it in gout, with him it proved diuretic and laxative, Gardiner considered it rather an innocent than a usefull medicine, Hoffman thought it an excellent anthelmintic, and from my own experience I am inclined to think it may be of service.

Anthemis Nobilis. Or chamomile have long been celebrated as a stomachic, it was employed in the 17th Century, before the discovery of the bark in intermittant fevers. Morton thought it as usefull as the bark, if given in substance, in the other forms they prove cathartic. Hoffman cured intermittant fevers by it. Berjius and Pitcairn both used it and the latter thought it an antidote to a flatulent colic; this I cannot believe, it may be usefull by its cathartic quality. Dr Cullen and Pringle supposed it relieved the tenesmus by means of an antispasmodic power. Cullen found it rather injurious in Diarrhea, he used it in intermittants. It has somewhat of an emetic quality, a simple aqueous infusion is frequently as an assistant in emetics, the bitter to most people is less disagreeable than any other.

396

Materia Medica

Stimulants

of worms, and was cured, there are two tinctures from the vallerian one is made by digesting eight or ten days the pulv. root with a gentle heat ℥ij [2 ounces] Spt. Vin. Rect. lbij [2 pounds] Tinct. Vol. Vallerian (the other) Is made by digesting wild vallerian in coarse powder ℥ij [2 ounces] Spt. Vin. Rect. lbij [2 pounds] the first is a stomachic and this formula is proposed by Dr Cullen but the best way is to give it in powder.

Conifera. This is a natural order of vegitables comprehinding the different species of Pine, these afford various species of turpentine but the purest is that which is the product of the Savin and which is improperly called Venice turpentine, it is an acrid substance and when apply'd to the skin inflames it. Cullen thought it might be rendered a usefull rubefacient, it was employ’d in the Emplastrum Volatile of the Edinburgh dispensatory and the only objection to it was it produced an inconvenient pain, some writers recommend it in recent wounds, but it is evident it must be injurious, when however from the fluid state of the wound it is unable to supperate will be usefull.

Spirits of Turpentine. This has been employ’d in burns and scalds. Authors differ concerning the propriety of this practice, by some it is said to produce immediate relief, if applied in half an hour and that the pain never continued longer than two hours