Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

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Materia Medica

Stimulants

sensibility and secretion of the organ. I have been informed that the same application cured earache, garlic is said to make the hair grow longer and blacker &c. As a medicine garlic is used in different forms sometimes a clove is dipt in the oil and swallow’d, in this form it does not heat the stomach as much as in others, it is sometimes made into an oxymel.

Assafoetida. This comes in with propriety after the alliacea, it is a foetid concrete juice obtained from a large umbellifferous plant like the fennel, the juice is obtained from the root of the plant and hardened in the sun, the plant is a native of Persia. Assafoetida has a bitter acrid and pungent taste with a strong smell the latter of which is the best criterion of its power and purity, its active principle resides in the volatile part therefore it suffers from keeping, it is not a gum but a gum resin and is well entitled to attention, it is the most powerfull of the foetid gums, that are used in practice. Bergius has exhibittid it in intermittants but has found it of little service in recent cases. In obstinate ones however it performed some cures when combined with the bark. It has been employ’d in nervous* [footnote back 1 page] diseases and is usefull in spasmodic affections of the stomach also of dyspepsia, it has been employ’d advantageously in flatulent colic &c. Dr Cullen thinks it acts more readily on the nerves than any other medicine and was

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fond of it as an antispasmodic. It has been used in Epilepsy and some other nervous affections as Chorea and Mania, with advantage in the spasmodic asthma of children, it has often been extremely usefull, it would be well for you to read, Dr Millers observations on this subject and those of Dr Rush on cynanche trachealis. Dr Miller gave it by the mouth and injection and found no medicine more usefull, he did not however confide entirely to this medicine. Dr Kuhn of Lancaster used it in injection and was not verry nice to the quantity and threw up about Ʒi [1 dram] in six ℥ [ounces] of water. I have also employ’d this medicine but not alone, there is another disease the Cynanche Maligna Trachealis in which it has been employ’d, here the excretions must be kept up and the squill combined with ammoniac is usefull, but the combination of Assafoetida with the oxymel of Squill is better. Dr Johnson of Worcester used it here he gave the bark, and between the doses gave a large spoonfull of the infusion of assafoetida, this is different from the croup of this country, the patient has at first the symptoms of scarlatina anguinosa and is often fatal. Assafoetida has been employ’d in common spasmodic asthma, all the foetid gums enter the circulation and act as expectorants, but none are better than this, it is said they prevent and remove the effects of opium. Dr Monroe gave it for this purpose along with