Sarsaparilla, and sarsaparilla so called : a popular analysis of a popular medicine, its nature, properties, and uses, how to insure its success as a remedy, the most approved forms, and the various phases of disease in which it may be advantageously employed / by Linnaeus Smilax.

  • Smilax, Linnaeus, active 1854.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sarsaparilla, and sarsaparilla so called : a popular analysis of a popular medicine, its nature, properties, and uses, how to insure its success as a remedy, the most approved forms, and the various phases of disease in which it may be advantageously employed / by Linnaeus Smilax. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    But, it may be well to remark, that, to'insure success, attention must be paid both to the quality of the sarsaparilla and to its preparation. It must be taken in large doses, and for a long time : hence the advantage of the concentrated forms, as the Fluid Extract. Inattention to the quality of the drug, administer- ing it in insufficient quantity, and the want of perseverance in its use, are, I think, the sources of those opinions of its inefficacy we often hear quoted ; while, in accordance with the above rules, sarsaparilla possesses restorative powers not hitherto observed in any other article of the Materia Medica .” Mb. Green.—“ It increases the vigour of the system, without quickening the pulse ; producing increase of tone without increase of action. The good effects of this medicine are'so obvious in some cases, that it appears to possess a specific effect over many diseases. Amongst the remedies we possess, experience warrants my saying, it stands first; and there are but few good practitioners in London who do not attribute much efficacy to it.”—Lectures of Professor Green, King's College. Mr. Travers.—“ It is in the strictest sense a tonic, with this valuable attribute, that it is applicable to a state of the system so sunken and irritable as renders other substances of the tonic class unavailable and injurious.” Mr. Bacot mentions the case of a patient in whom mercury was productive of most serious consequences, colliquative sweats, loss of appetite, and rapid waste of flesh, with nocturnal pains so severe that no language could be too strong to express his suffering. “ Opium afforded no relief. A pint of the simple decoction was given each day uninterruptedly for five weeks (accompanied by no other medicine), at the end of which time all the symptoms were removed.”