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Show 104 INDIAN PINK. grains of the powder to a scruple, or more, and to adults from sixty to seventy grains; and in infusion to the dose of two, three, or four drachms a day; observing, that he has known half a drachmofthis root purge as briskly as the samequantity j Vp Uf milly PMWMiP” of rhubarb; that he never found it do good unless whereit did purge ; and that hehad tried it with advantage in several hundreds of cases. He makes this remark, that by keeping, this medicine lost considerably of its virtues; for forty grains of the root, ca Nae] which had not been gathered above two months, operatedas strongly as sixty which had been kept forfifteen months. Dr. Home, of Edinburgh, in his Clinical Observations, mentions his having used this medicine, and found it to be a good anthelmintic. According to Lining, thirty large worms (the teretes) were at once voided by a negro girl by theuse of this root. Dr. Home gaveit to eight patients, three of whom passed worms ; the other five did not, but were relieved from those complaints which were thought to have proceeded from worms. To children of eight years of age he gave ten grains of the powder, twice a day: and to adults half a drachm, four times a day: it produced no vertigo, dimness of the sight, convulsion of the eyes, or any other alarming symptom, but proved only purgative. This medicine has not come into general practice, owing to the alarming effects said sometimes to have arisen from it, as likewise to its loss of virtues from keeping ; but growing very. > well in this country, it deserves to be cultivated here, and bids fair to be a very useful addition to our arms against disease. In a few cases only I have seen any alarm produced; and as this soon went off, and the patients were relieved of worms, andthat nasty viscid slime in which they are engendered, I am inclined myself to think well of this remedy. in THK IX? D > TED SCAMMONY BINDWEED. CONVOLVULUS SCAMMONIA. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Essent. Gen. Cnar. Corolla campanulate, plicate: Sligmas two: Capsule bilocular: Cells two-seeded. Srec. Cuar. Leaves sagittate, behind truncate: Flowers on slender peduncles, two or three together. + aero DESCRIPTION. Tw root is thick and large like bryony, black on the surface and white within, andit is full of an acrid milky juice; from this arise stalks weak andtrailing, three or four feet high, and beset with triangular leaves like those of the common field bindweed. The flowers grow from the axilla of these, are large, bell-shaped, aud whitish, with a purplish or yellowish tinge. The seed-vessel is of a pointed form, and the seeds themselves angular and blackish. |