PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

veer's use of scutellaria as a remedy in the eure of rabies gave himgreat 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 eureand as a professional remedy in the treatment of this dreadful disease,the latter, however, being altogether based upon the domestic use ofthe drug. According to Schöpf (582), 1785, the plant was used asa home remedy in the eure of fevers.

SENEGA

Senega, the root of a small North American plant (Polygalasenega), enjoyed very early a reputation as one of the new remediesproduced by America. The Seneca Indians of New York State em-ployed it as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake, which led toits 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, andthrough his efforts and those of others (even Linnseus [385] writinga dissertation on it) senega root came into great demand. In domesticAmerican medicine it has been continually used as an expectorant, theusual form being that of a syrup.

SENNA

Senna leaves are from two species of cassia, one of which is nativeto Nubia and other sections of Africa, while the other abounds inYemen and Southern Arabia as well as in some parts of India, whereit is eultivated for medicinal use. The eultivated plant, originally theproduet of Arabian seed, furnishes the leaves known in commerce asTinnevelly senna. The drug was introduced into Western Europe bythe Arabians, and in this connection it may be stated that, notwith-standing its present abundance in some parts of Africa, according toIsaac Judseus (336a), a native of Egypt, who lived about 850-900A. D., senna was brought from Mecca to Egypt. In early Arabianmedicine the pods of the senna were preferred to the leaves. Its pricein France, 1542, was about that of pepper or ginger. This writerfound senna in the Orient, carried in shops selling foods and pro-visions, as well as in the Oriental bazaars, it being everywhere a fa-miliär domestic cathartic. Its native use introduced the drug to medi-cine and antedates historical record.

SERPENTARIA

Aristolochia serpentaria is a perennial herb found in woodlandsof the temperate parts of the United States, especially in the Alleghenyand Cumberland Mountains, although it seldom prevails abundantly.It is by some believed to have been first mentioned in 1636, byThomas Johnson, an apothecary of London, who issued an edition of

81