PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

VIBURNUM PRUNIFOLIUM

Black haw, Viburnum prunifolium. The bark of this tree wasemployed in American domestic medication during the first part ofthe nineteenth Century. The first authentic reference we have observedis in the American Family Physician, by Professor John King, M. D.(356), 1857, where the drug is described and the Statement made thatit acts as a uterine tonic, its uses being practically those now recordedin medical literature. In 1860 Dr. I. J. M. Goss (New Preparations,1878, p. 61) commended the drug, probably brought to his attentionthrough the writings of King, as well, possibly, as from its local em-ployment in his part of the South. He introduced it into his ownpractice and commended it to his professional friends. From this dateblack haw grew rapidly in favor, and through repeated publications,in medical as well as pharmaceutical literature, came into extensivedemand, being finally given a position in the Pharmacopeia of theUnited States.

XANTHOXYLUM

Prickly ash, Xanthoxylum americanum, is a shrub native toNorth America, being somewhat abundant in localities where it isfound, between the Mississippi River and the Western States. Longa domestic remedy, it became a favorite in the Eclectic school ofmedicine by reason of its use during the prevalence of the Asiaticcholera in Cincinnati, 1849, in which it was employed by them withgreat satisfaction. It had, however, as stated, a domestic as well asa seemingly professional record preceding that date, the same reachingback to the primitive medication of the Indians. Barton's Collection(43), Zollickoffer's (706) Materia Medica (1826), and other authori-ties on the domestic remedies of North America mention it conspicu-ously, the latter writer stating that the berries were used to relievethe toothache, a decoction of the bark in the treatment of rheumaticaffections, whilst the country people employed an infusion of the ber-ries in colic. It was therefore a populär remedy, possessed of markedcarminative qualities, that, impressing such men as Barton (43),Thacher (631), King 356-357), Zollickoffer (706), and others, broughtit into professional recognition. Prickly ash berries are used in largeamount in some of the American proprietary remedies.

ZEA (STIGMA MAYDIS)

Com Silk (Zea, or Stigmata maydis) seems to have crept intothe notice of the medical profession in Europe before it had any con-spicuity in America. In 1878 (Revista de Madrid), a Dr. Betherandmentioned it in print. Long preceding that date, however, a tea ofcom silk had been employed in American domestic practice as a remedyfor acute affections of the bladder. Dr. John Davis, a well-known Cin-cinnati physician, repeatedly informed the writer that, in his opinion, adecoction of com silk, together with a decoction of dried pods of beans,was the most effective of all diuretics he had employed in his practice,

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