HISTORY. It is a perennial plant, and grows wild in the uncultivated fields of New-Jersey and the New-England states: flowers from June to July: the roots are fibrous,of a dark red colour externally, of a white internally; and has the flavor of cloves, with a bitterish astringent taste. The large roots are preferable to the fibrous ones, which must be dug up in April, cut into thin slices, and dryed in the air as quick as possible. After being pulverized, sift the powder through a hair sieve, and put it in bottles well corked, for use. MEDICAL VIRTUES. It is a good febrifuge, and is really an excellent substitute for the jesuite bark, in the cure of intermittent fevers, dysentery, chronic diarrhoæs, wind colic, affections of the stomach, asthmatic symptoms, and cases of debility. PREPARATION. After the patient has taken a puke of the American ipecacuanha, and the fever is off, a tea-spoonful of the powder may be administered every hour until the fever is broke, and use my stomach bitters (mentioned in this work) in order to prevent a relapse. The following is Mrs. Shaw's preparation of Indian chocolate, which is strongly recommended as an effectual cure of consumptions. Take of aven root, two ounces; arum root, half an ounce, in powders; skunk cabbage balls, half an ounce, in powder; ginseng and masterwort, each half an ounce; sugar candy, one ounce. Mix one table-spoonful of these powders, and boil them in one quart of rain water, and one pint of new milk, for an hour. In all debilitating complaints, or beginning consumptions, the patient may take two tea-cups of this chocolate, morning and evening, sweetened with loaf sugar, and ride out every day, for two hours, before dinner. Thus I have made public, a secret, with some valuable additions, which will be of great utility to the community. This plant is of the fan specie, and is perennial : is about twelve inches in height, and has three or four leaves springing from the root, every one of which are single, winged, and are of about a hands length. HISTORY. It grows plentifully in low moist pastures, and near ponds: the root is about the size of a goosequill, lying aslope, or creeping under the ground, of a brown colour, very sweet, and of a mucilaginous taste. MEDICAL VIRTUES. The root is a good pectoral and demulcent. PREPARATION. The following sirup is an excellent medicine : boil one pound of the dry roots bruised in two gallons of water, to the consistency of one; strain the liquor, to which add two quarts of honey, and boil it down to three quarts: put it in a jug and keep it in a cool cellar. In all violent coughs, the patient may take a table-spoonful every half hour through the day, and when going to bed he may take a wine glass full. In consumptive coughs, a tea made of loungwort, maiden hair, and wild cherry-tree bark, each half an ounce, to two quarts of boiling rain water, may be drank daily. The following liquor has cured the most inveterate lumbago, or back ach: Take one pound of fresh roots of brake, and one ounce of sumach root, cut small; boil them in two quarts of rum till it becomes slimy. Dip brown paper in this liquid and bind it across the back, after taking a dose of caster oil, repeating the application every hour till well. Rub the spine and os sacrum with a piece of flannel dipped in the warm liquor, for ten minutes before you apply the paper. This is also an effectual cure for the rickets in children: take one ounce of brake root, cut fine, and pour a quart of boiling rain water on it, sweeten it, give the child a tea-cup full four times a day, rub the parts three times a day with the rum decoction, and apply brown paper wet in it, over the spine and back. The child must be plunged into a deep spring for a minute every morning, and dryed well after taken out. The stem rises about three feet in height; leaves egg shaped, spreading, rough, ribbed, veined, deeply serrated. and of a bright green colour, |