Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United-States / By Benjamin Smith Barton ... Part first.

  • Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815.
Date:
1801
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United-States / By Benjamin Smith Barton ... Part first. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/76 (page 11)
    clues with which we are acquainted, such as the Peru¬ vian bark, the extensive tribe of bitter medicines, as the Gentians, &tc. The natural infirmities of mankind, and perhaps especially the vices to which civilized nations are so propense, will always render the tonics most ne^ cessary implements in the hands of physicians. Our woods possess several medicines which, lam inclined to think, might be used, with advantage, as sub- stitutes for the Peruvian bark. Perhaps, most of our Oaks, which are, in general, different from the oaks of the old world, are of this kind. Sufficient trials have not been made with them; at least internally used. Externally, some of them have been employed, with advantage. I have used the bark of the Spanish oak* in gangrene, and I had every reason to think it was, in this case, equal in power to the best Peruvian bark. The bark of the Prunus Virginiana, or Wild-Cherry-tree, has been used in intermittent fevers, and found useful. This is a very common tree. Its leaves are poisonous to certain animals, as calves. Even the berries intoxicate different kinds of birds. The barks of the Common Sassafras (Laurus Sassafras), and Persimmon (Diospyros Virgi¬ niana) have likewise been found useful in intermittents. In the year 1793, I used the bark of the last of these ve¬ getables in an ulcerous sore-throatf. Our Willows have not been attentively examined. We have several native species, and I believe they possess nearly the same pro¬ perties which have been ascribed to the willows of Eu¬ rope J, by Stone, Haller, and other writers. The Dog- * Quercus rubra montana of Marshall. See his Arbustum Americanum: the American Grove, &c. p. 123. Philadelphia: 1785. f Dr. Woodhouse has favoured us with some interesting information concern- ing the Persimmon. See his Inaugural Dissertation. Philadelphia. 1792. t Particularly the Salix alba, Salix pentandra, Salix latifolia, &.c.