MEDICAL VIRTUES.

The berries have been long in great esteem, in the cure of dropsies, rheumatism, and the gout, being found a brisk cathartic, and very efficacious, particularly in dropsies.

PREPARATION.

Take one gallon of the expressed juice of buckthorn berries, keep them in an earthen pipkin over the hot embers for an hour, then strain the liquor through a fine cloth, and put into the depurated liquor one ounce of ginger, one ounce of black pepper, and half an ounce of the powder of masterwort root; to these add two quarts of molasses and boil all in a brass or copper kettle, down to two quarts, which you will put into pots close covered, to be used in dropsies, as follows: take a gill of this sirup, and work it off by drinking half a pint of thin oatmeal gruel, after each stool, which will powerfully purge off the water without griping. As a common purge the patient may take four table-spoonsful, or two ounces for a dose, and drink thin water gruel as above.

The juice, or decoction, causes gripings and pain, and therefore the above sirup, made either with molasses or loaf sugar, as best suits the taste, is a brisk and safe cathartic, which may be used as circumstances require.

This plant rises about three feet: purple stem: branches alternate: leaves heart.shaped, veiny, of a dark green colour on the top, and underneath whitish, the lower ones very large, standing upon long foot stalks, grooved like the stem: flowers numerous, generally ending in pairs.

HISTORY.

it flowers in July and August, and is well known by the burrs which stick to the clothes in the fall of the year, when the seed is ripe and fit to be gathered for use.

MEDICAL VIRTUES.

The root has been found on trial to be druretica mundificans, diaphoretica, promotes sweat and urine, and is of a cleansing detergent quality. Its ́virtues are recorded by many eminent physicians and botanists, that it has cured scurvy, rheumatism, lewis venerea, gravel, and gout.

PREPARATION.

Boil one pound of the fresh roots, cut thin and small, with half a pound of yellow dock root, in two gallons of rain water to the consumption of one gallon strain the decoction and put it in a stone jug, in a cool cellar for use. In the cure of the following diseases, viz. scurvy, suppression of urine, and recent clap, the patient may take half a pint four times a day.

For the benefit of our poor gallant, but unfortunate seamen, &c. I shall reveal my celebrated antivenereal remedy, by the use of which I have cured numbers both in its recent and fourth stage, without the use of mercury.

Take burdock root one pound, yellow dock root half a pound, yarrow half a pound, parsley roots and leaves half a pound, and comfree root four ounces ;

boil all the ingredients in eight quarts of water down to one gallon, strain the decoction, and put it up in black bottles for use. Dose, one gill to be taken three times a day.

When it is to be carried to sea in warm weather, put a gill of gin to every bottle in order to keep it from souring.

This plant rises about a foot in height: leaves are variously shaped, pinnated: flowers stand upon terminal umbels: the seeds are naked, furrowed, and egg shaped.

HISTORY.

This plant grows in dry meadows and pastures, and is cultivated in gardens for family use: flowers appear in September.

MEDICAL VIRTUES.

The root is the only part used, which is found to be resolvent, diaphoretic, stomachic, diuretic, emmenagogue and is beneficial in all asthmatic complaints, catarrhal coughs, and hoarseness.

PREPARATIONS.

Pour one quart of boiling rain or spring water on an ounce of the bruised dry root, and sweeten it with loaf sugar. Dose for an adult, a wine glass full taken four times a day, in order to remove any of the above complaints. Chewing the root draws off the saliva, or spittle, from the gums, and gives immediate relief in the tooth ach.

For women labouring under obstructed catamenia. Boil two ounces of the root in three quarts of water, down to two quarts, and strain the decoction. Dose, a gill may be taken daily twice a day and at bed time, for a week, both before the full and change of the moon, observing to sit over the steam of penny royal and catnip, every night before going to bed, for ten minuets, or until they flow sufficiently.