with the roots of this plant, which he denominates "white hellebore." A portion of this root was repeatedly given to each individual, and he whose stomach made the most vigorous resistance or soonest recovered from its effects was considered the stoutest of the party and entitled to command the rest.

Kalm tells us that the people of this country, at the time of his travels, employed a decoction of this plant externally in the cure of scorbutic affections, and for the destruction of vermin. He further states, that corn before planting was soaked in a strong decoction of the Veratrum to protect it against the birds which infest our fields and devour the grain after it is deposited in the ground. When the corn is thus prepared, it is observed, that those birds which swallow it become giddy and fall to the ground, an example, the writer informs us, which has the effect to frighten the remainder of the tribe away from the place.

Since the celebrity acquired by the European white hellebore as a remedy for gout, that plant being for a time supposed the basis of the celebrated Eau medicinale; the attention of some practitioners has been turned to investigating the properties of the American plant, which so close

ly resembles the Veratrum album in its external habitudes. The result of such trials as have been made, establishes beyound a doubt the medicinal similarity of these two vegetables. I have employed the American plant in dispensary practice in the treatment of obstinate cases of chronic rheumatism. Other practitioners have applied it to the treatment of gout, and of cutaneous and other affections. From the sum of my observations and knowledge respecting it, I am satisfied that the root, when not impaired by long exposure and age, is in sufficient doses a strong emetic, commencing its operation tardily, but continuing in many instances for a long time; in large doses affecting the functions of the brain and nervous system in a powerful manner, producing giddiness, impaired vision, prostration of strength and diminution of the vital powers. Like the Veratrum album and Colchicum antunmale, the violent impression which it makes upon the system has arrested the paroxysms of gout and given relief in some unyielding cases of protracted rheumatism. Like those substances, it requires to be given with great caution and under vigilant restrictions. The solutions of this article have appeared to me more powerful in proportion to their quantity than the substance, probably in consequence of a part of

the powder being thrown out in the first efforts to vomit, before a perfect solution of its active parts in the stomach could have taken place.

A course of experiments with this article was made sometime since in the Boston Almshouse by Dr. John Ware, the results of which he has obligingly communicated to me. They cannot be better stated than in his own words.

"I gave this plant," says he, "in the first place with a view to ascertain its action on the stomach and alimentary canal. The doses in which it was administered amounted to from two to ten grains. I began with a small quantity, and increased it very gradually in order to guard against the occurrence of those violent and dangerous effects which I had been led to apprehend from the descriptions given of the operation of the white hellebore. A slight and general account of the experiments will give the most satisfactory view of the effects of this root as an emetic.

"It was administered in about thirty cases. In the first case two grains were given; this only produced slight and temporary nausea.

"In three instances three grains were administered; in two of these vomiting was produced; in one of them to a considerable degree-in the other slight-in the third no effect whatever was

produced. Of gr. iv. Four doses, of which only one operated, and then the operation was inconsiderable. Of gr. vi. Fifteen doses were giventen of these operated perfectly well; as complete and thorough vomiting was produced as follows from the case of any other emetics—in the elev enth case nausea. only ensued—and in the remaining, no effect whatever was perceived.-Of gr. viii. Four doses—of these, two failed entirely and two operated satisfactorily.—Of. gr. x. Only one dose was given-this operated very thoroughly.

"I did not find, as I had expected, that this substance was uncommonly violent or distressing in its operation. Patients, in general, did not complain of any thing unusual, and when they were particularly questioned as to their sensations, they told of nothing more than those usually occurring during the effects of a brisk emetic. It seemed to produce vomiting rather more severely than an ordinary dose of ipecac—but not more than one of antimony. Indeed, its operation may fairly be said to be about as violent and distressing as that of any other emetic whose ef fects in evacuating the stomach are equally thorough. In a few instances, however, there was a complaint of very violent and painful retching

and of dizziness at the time and for a short time after still these effects were not common nor excessive.

"As to its influence as an emetic upon diseased states of the system, there were few opportunities of administering it where any considerable derangement existed. In those cases which did occur it did not appear to be inferior to the common emetics.

"The degree of operation did not seem to be much increased by the increase of the dose of the medicine. Doses of six grains appeared, when they took effect, to produce vomiting as thorough and complete, as that which followed from larger doses; except that the larger were perhaps more speedy in operating. I could find no cause for the failure of so many of those cases in which the dose amounted to six or eight grains, except an insensibility in the patient to the stimulus of the medicine; and this was rendered more probable from the circumstance that generally in those instances, the substance failed in producing any effect whatever; nausea did not often occur when vomiting was not to follow it, and in no instance was it very clear that purging was produced.

"Indeed this appeared to be rather a singular circumstance relating to this substance, and one