Eleven cases, all milder in form than the two just related, were continued upon the lime-juice; diet the same. On the 21st of April they exhibited evidences of improvement, but it was nothing when compared with the cases under the use of the maguey.
Seven cases were under treatment during the same time, making use of citric acid. On the 21st of April no one had improved, and three were growing worse.
At this time so convinced was I of the great superiority of the maguey over either of the other remedies employed that I determined to place all the patients upon that medicine. The result has proved exceedingly gratifying; every case has improved rapidly from that date. The countenance, so universally dejected and despairing in the patients affected with scurvy, is brightened up by contentment and hope in two days from the time of its introduction; the most marked evidences of improvement were observable at every successive visit. From observing the effects of the maguey in the cases which have occurred in this command, I am compelled to place it far above that remedy which, till now, has stood above every other—the lime-juice.
This no doubt will appear strong language, but further experience will verify it.
The juice of the maguey contains a large amount of vegetable and saccharine matter, and of itself is sufficiently nutritious to sustain a patient for days.
This succulent plant grows indigenous in most parts of the State, and, if I am correctly informed, in New Mexico and California. In Mexico it is well-known as the plant from which they manufacture their favorite drink, the "Pulque," and grows in great abundance. As it delights in a dry sandy soil, it can be cultivated where nothing but the cactus will grow; for this reason, it will be found invaluable to the army at many of the western posts, where vegetables cannot be procured.
The manner in which it is used is as follows, viz.:—The leaves are cut off close to the root, they are placed in hot ashes until thoroughly cooked, when they are removed, and the juice expressed from them. The expressed juice is then strained, and may be used thus, or may be sweetened. It may be given in doses of f. ǯij. to f. ǯiij. three times daily.
It is not disagreeable to take, and in every instance it has proved to agree well with the stomach and bowels.
After the leaves have been cooked, the cortical portion near the root may be removed, and the white internal portion may be eaten; it appears to be a wholesome and nutritious food. I have seen muleteers use it in this way, and they seem to be very fond of it. I have been informed, upon good authority, that several tribes of Indians in New Mexico make use of it in the same manner. The use of the leaf in this way, I believe, will ward off most effectually incipient scorbutus.
(In El Siglo Medico, 1890, Dr. Fernandez Avila reports the case of a boy, æt. 8, who had been bitten by a supposedly mad dog on Feb. 18. The wound healed up, but on July 7th the boy developed all the symptoms of rabies and on the 17th was so violent that he had to be tied and had not tasted food for seventy-two hours as all remedies failed to produce any effect, the doctor, having read that Agave Americana was efficacious in such cases, and having none of the tincture at hand, gave the boy a piece of the plant itself which he greedily ate; it was given to him as long as he would take it. On the 25th his symptoms had all abated and he was dismissed cured.)