Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

362

Materia Medica

Stimulants

where it is bruised, the smell is like that of a mouse, it is poisonous among some of the quadrupeds, as the rabbit &c, but the goat eats it with impunity, the medicine was employ’d in Greece to kill those criminals that were condemned to die, the Immortal Socrates perished by it. Cullen calls the hemlock a sedative, Darwin places it among the incitantia, I have no doubt that it deserves a place among the incitantia though it is weaker than opium, belladonna. It produces delirium, stupor, loss of appetite, madness, and a large flow of urine upon dessection of those animals that die of it, it inflames their bowels it has produced a salvation. Baron Stark has published a paper in which he used it in doses from grs ij [2 grains] up to Ʒi [1 dram] in cancer with the effect of curing the disease. Bergius and the other Physicians say that it is injurious except in scrophulous cancer, where it is verry usefull. Dr Adams says it is an important medicine especially in cases where there is high irritation, he acknowledges that it is an uncertain one. Of late it has often been employed in England in the form of a bath, the following is the method of preparing it Rx Hemlock seed lbfs [½ pound], leaves lbi [1 pound] water galls viij [8 gallons]. tie up the seed and leaves in a bag and boil them in the water in a copper vessel untill it is reduced to 6 galls. [gallons] then add a sufficient quantity of cold water and immerse

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Materia Medica

Stimulants

histeria with rather good effects, its most active parts are the most volatile and they are therefore carried of by distillation, the plant has nevertheless been used in diet.

Lauri Camphor. This is certainly a stimulant though its stimulating effects are not so evident as the Hyosciamus and Belladonna especially when given in small doses, it is not much employ’d in this country and therefore our Physicians are not able to make up their minds with respect to its operation, camphor may be obtained from many vegitables, it may be collected from the sassafras in small quantities, from rosemary, sage, &c, it is produced from the laurus Camphori; this tree grows to such a size in the Cape of Good Hope, and Japan, that two men cannot lift it, the branches are cut into peices and the camphor is discovered in the interstices it is then scraped out with Iron Instruments, there are three kinds of camphor, the head, the belly, and the foot, the head camphor is the best kind, and received in its native state as produced from the tree, it occasions a coolness in the mouth checks nausea and has an acid taste, imparts the whole of its oil in distillation, the belly or common camphor produces nausea and has acid taste, producing camphor comes to us in a white solid mass, it is tenaceous between the teeth, and of an aromatic taste, producing cold in the mouth, it floats on the surface of water and in open