[K] As my researches are confined to my own library, I do not profess to be exhaustive. I have not given all the references at my command, but have aimed to include such writers as have made positive contributions to our knowledge of this drug. Of my list, only Rafinesque is a mere (but a useful) compiler.
Empirical Applications.
In dealing with authors who have gone to their reward, it has always seemed to me a duty to give their own words as far as possible. It brings them face to face with the reader, and is as if one brushed the moss from their gravestones, or perhaps, like Old Mortality, carved afresh a half-obliterated name.
It is not the briefest way, but it has the merit of showing from whence the bricks came of which the edifice is built. I shall, then, cite the authorities in chronological order, and copiously enough to include essentials.
Cutler.—The roots dried and powdered are an excellent medicine in asthmatic cases, and often give relief when other means are ineffectual. It may be given with safety to children as well as to adults; to the former, in doses of four, five or six grains, and to the latter in doses of twenty grains and upwards. It is given in the fit, and repeated as the case may require. This knowledge is said to have been obtained from the Indians, who, it is likewise said, repeat the dose, after the paroxysm (sic) is gone off, several mornings, then miss as many, and repeat it again; thus continuing the medicine until the patient is perfectly recovered. It appears to be anti-spasmodic, and bids fair to be useful in many other disorders.—Op. cit., 1,409.
Schoepf.—I am obliged to cite at second hand, as I have never been able to find a copy of his opus. One may judge of its rarity, when a foreign advertisement by a German bookseller some years since failed to obtain it for me.
Prof. W. P. C. Barton, op. cit., gives the gist of the Hessian surgeon's contribution in a style and manner as prim and orderly as that of Surgeon Schoepf himself on a dress parade.
| "Pharm. | Dracontii Radix. |
| Qual. | Acris, alliacea, nauseosa. |
| Vis. | Incidens, califaciens, expectorans. |
| Usus: | fol. contrita ad vulnera recentia et ulcera. Tussis consumptiva Scorbutus et elii morbi radix. Ari officin. utilis." |
"Incidens": Young reader, you must go back more than a century to understand the "pathology" that is wrapped up in that word like a mummy in its cerements. Don't laugh at that "pathology," for some graceless graduate will laugh at yours in 1989. Note, however, in passing, that Schoepf says nothing, save tussis, that suggests the vis anti-spasmodica of Cutler.
Thacher.—The roots and seeds, when fresh, impart to the mouth a sensation of pungency and acrimony similar to Arum.