History of the vegetable drugs of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States / by John Uri Lloyd ; with portraits of Charles Rice and Joseph P. Remington.

  • John Uri Lloyd
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: History of the vegetable drugs of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States / by John Uri Lloyd ; with portraits of Charles Rice and Joseph P. Remington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    veer’s use of Scutellaria as a remedy in the cure of rabies gave him great notoriety and introduced the drug to Thacher (631), whose dis- sertation on “Hydrophobia and Its Cure” involved the remedies em- ployed in that disease, as well as substances other than Scutellaria com- mended therein. Scutellaria has thus a record both as a secret cure and as a professional remedy in the treatment of this dreadful disease, the latter, however, being altogether based upon the domestic use of the drug. According to Schopf (582), 1785, the plant was used as a home remedy in the cure of fevers. SENEGA Senega, the root of a small North American plant (Polygala senega), enjoyed very early a reputation as one of the new remedies produced by America. The Seneca Indians of New York State em- ployed it as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake, which led to its notoriety in the hands of Tennent, a Scotch physician in Virginia, who also administered it for coughs. Under the name senega, or rat- tlesnake root, it came to the attention of Dr. Mead, of London, and through his efforts and those of others (even Linmeus [385] writing a dissertation on it) senega root came into great demand. In domestic American medicine it has been continually used as an expectorant, the usual form being that of a syrup. SENNA Senna leaves are from two species of cassia, one of which is native to Nubia and other sections of Africa, while the other abounds in Yemen and Southern Arabia as well as in some parts of India, where it is cultivated for medicinal use. The cultivated plant, originally the product of Arabian seed, furnishes the leaves known in commerce as Tinnevelly senna. The drug was introduced into Western Europe by the Arabians, and in this connection it may be stated that, notwith- standing its present abundance in some parts of Africa, according to Isaac Judaeus (336a), a native of Egypt, who lived about 850-900 A. D., senna was brought from Mecca to Egypt. In early Arabian medicine the pods of the senna were preferred to the leaves. Its price in France, 1542, was about that of pepper or ginger. This writer found senna in the Orient, carried in shops selling foods and pro- visions, as well as in the Oriental bazaars, it being everywhere a fa- miliar domestic cathartic. Its native use introduced the drug to medi- cine and antedates historical record. SERPENTARIA Aristolochia serpentaria is a perennial herb found in woodlands of the temperate parts of the United States, especially in the Allegheny and Cumberland Mountains, although it seldom prevails abundantly. It is by some believed to have been first mentioned in 1636, by Thomas Johnson, an apothecary of London, who issued an edition of