Volume 1

Vegetable materia medica of the United States, or, Medical botany : containing a botanical, general, and medical history of medicinal plants indigenous to the United States / Illustrated by coloured engravings ... done by the author. By William P.C. Barton.

  • William P. C. Barton
Date:
1818-1825 [v.1, 1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable materia medica of the United States, or, Medical botany : containing a botanical, general, and medical history of medicinal plants indigenous to the United States / Illustrated by coloured engravings ... done by the author. By William P.C. Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    28/332 page 22
    many of the physicians of Great Britain.^ Dr. William Somerville of the English army, deputy inspector of military hospitals, has published the result of his trials of it, in the Medico-Chu’urgical Transactions of London, vol. 5. p. 340. It appears from this paper that Mr. Carter, a Surgeon who had charge of the hospital at William Heniy, in Canada, had used a strong infusion of the plant in a case of ascites, with good effect. The patient had been taking digitalis, crystals of tartar, and other diuretics, without any success. The diuretic effect of the infusion in this instance, was manifest and con- siderable. It induced Dr. Somerville to try the medicine in the case of Sir James Craig, the governor of Canada, who laboured under general dropsy, and whose system was cachectic. He tells us that the benefit of the herb was not durable, though while it lasted, it was very considerable; that its effects upon the kidneys were perceptible in two days; and that the medicine also produced a decided effect on the stomach, increasing the appetite. Sir James was directed to begin by taking a strong infusion of the whole plant, in the quantity of a pint in twenty-four hours. The same patient took the plant in various forms, with benefit. Dr. Somerville says that another pa- tient for whom he prescribed it, remarked, that an agreeable sensa- tion was produced in the stomach soon after taking the medicine, followed in some instances by extraordinary increase of appetite; and he justly observes that this circumstance gives it a very great advantage over other diuretics, none of which are agreeable to * A druggist in Philadelphia received a drawing and description of this plant from Dublin, and an order to send thither a large quantity.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3