An essay on the Rhus toxicodendron : with cases of its effects in the cure of paralytic affections, and other diseases of great debility / By Johnn Alderson.

  • Alderson, John, 1757-1829.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the Rhus toxicodendron : with cases of its effects in the cure of paralytic affections, and other diseases of great debility / By Johnn Alderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/74
    Another and very material objedtion is, the unequal degrees of ftrength in equal portions of the fame plant; for light, heat, moifture and fituation, affedt all the vegetable poifons; the greateft atten- tion is required not only in their preparation*, but even in their prefervation ; for, however carefully the plant may have been prepared, yet two parcels of the fame fpecimen, the one expofed to the light and the other not, will be fo affedted, that they will have different degrees of ftrength. Thefe plants, like-wife, are more or lefs adtive as medicines, as they have been gathered in lhady or open places,§ I muft therefore caution all thofe who are in the habit of employing them, that they do not eftimate the ftrength of the dofe of any frefli fample by their experience of a former parcel. The following cafe will juftify this caution; I was fome years ago called upon to vifitthe fon of the Rev. Mr. W. whom I found affedted by all the fymptoms of fcrophula. I ordered him Hem- lock, Conium maculatum. Having gathered the plant * In fome inftances the Toxicodendron has loft fivc-fixths of its weight in drying, in others four-fifths. § It is alfo right to defend the character of the genuine plant by obferving here, that every fpecies of Sumach has been oc- cafionally fold by the druggifts for the Toxicodendron.