58

The Materia Medica.

The expreffedjuice is given as an antifcorbutic in dofes ofgij to ^iv, in milk, or any other convenient liquor. (BeuleDiEl. de la Mat. Med.) The juice, or infufion of the herb,is ufed in cafes called fcorbutic and in fcrophula. (Doody apudRay Synops. Ed. 2, App.) Witherhig fays, a young lady, fixyears old, was cured of an oblrinate cutaneous difeafe bytaking three large fpoonfuls of the juice twice a day ; andthat he has repeatedly given to adults Jiij, or ^iv, everymorning, in fimilar complaints, with the greateft advantage.He adds, that, in the dofes he gave, it neither affeäs thehead, itomach, or bowels. Bot. Arr. Vol. I.

1

Sperma ceti,Bpermaceti.

Spigelia, Indian Fink, Spigelia n2aryla?idica>

the Root.

L. S. N.

Indian Pink is a perennial plant, and a native of SouthCarolina,—the rootof which, after being many years in ufethere, among thelndians, planters, and medical praäitioners,was made known in 1754, to Dr.. IVbytt, by Dr. Lining,whofe account of it was publimed in the EJfays phyf. and lit.Edinb. Vol. I. as was a farther account in the third vol. ofthe fame Effays, fent, in 1764. and 1766, to Dr. HopehyDr. Garden.

Th:s root, which is horizontal, fimple, unequal, withmany long fibres,—is faid to be a fafe anthelminthic, rarelyfailing, if the root be nottoo old,— not naufeous to children,1— often proying laxative, and in a large dofe purgative or e-

metic ;—>