(seq. 169)

160

Materia Medica

Tonics

and astringent, it is used by the Indians in Intermittant fevers.
Dr Rush has also used it and found it to answer verry well, it is
used in Herpatic affections common in Virginia which attacks
the body and spreads to the limbs according to Mr Jefferson,
this disease is much less common now than formerly. It sometime
puked and sometime purged.

Croton Eleutheria
or Caskarilla. This grows in the West Indies,
it is bitter and aromatic and heats the mouth, it has been
smoked and said to induce Intoxication, it has been used and
much celebrated as a substitute for the bark, though certainly
it is a verry feble bitter, it is one of our cordial tonics and
possesses no astringency, it was used in the Plague of Norway, Professor
Allinus says it has proved efficacious after retechia appeared. In
the dysentary succeeding fever it was also of use. I have never
used it but think some advantage may be derived from it as a
tonic. Bergius says it is usefull in Hymoptesis, this I doubt.
Dr Cullen knew nothing of it from experience. I am inclined to believe
that the caskarilla is extremely similar to our sumake and &
should not be used only in the decline of fevers, it is said to be of
efficacy in intermittants, where the bark has failed this is mentioned