bles, under the two heads of such as are more general, and such as are more partial, or topical, in their operation.

GENERAL STIMULANTS.

I THINK that many of our different balsamic products may, with propriety, be considered under the head of GENERAL STIMULANTS, though they are certainly not the most diffusible articles of this class. Such is the resin of the Populus balsamifera, called Balsam, or Tacamahaca-Tree. This is a native of North-America and of Siberia. The resin is procured from the leaf-buds. This balsam is so very penetrating, that it communicates its peculiar smell and taste to the flesh of certain birds which feed upon the buds. It was formerly supposed, that the Tacamahaca of the shops was the produce of this tree. But it seems more probable that it is the produce of the Fagara octandra.

THE gum-resin which exudes from the Sweetgum, or Maple-leaved Liquidambar-Tree, the Liquidambar Styraciflua of Linnæus, deserves to be mentioned. The storax of the shops is thought to be the produce of this tree: but perhaps this point is not yet quite ascertained. I am informed that the produce of our tree has been used, with advan

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tage, in diarrheas. Some of our southern Indians mix the dried leaves with tobacco, for smoking.

To the head of stimulants I have no hesitation in referring a number of poisonous vegetables, with the properties of which we are not so well acquainted as we ought to be. Such are the Datura Stramonium, or James-town-weed, the Cicuta maculata, &c.

THE Datura is one of our most common plants. It is certainly a medicine possessed of useful powers. The properties of this vegetable have lately been more satisfactorily investigated by one of our members, Dr. Samuel Cooper.

We have several native plants of the natural order umbelliferæ. That described by the late Dr. James Greenway, under the name of Cicuta venenosa, should be carefully investigated. This, from his account, must either be a direct sedative, or a stimulant, whose first operation is very soon accomplished. It kills without inducing pain or convulsions. Perhaps the plant with which some of our Indians, when weary of life, destroy themselves, is the same. It grows in meadows, and has a root like a parsnip.

BEFORE I take leave of these poisonous plants, I may mention some others whose properties are but

little known. The first is the Rhododendron maximum, or Pennsylvania Mountain-Laurel. This is certainly a poison. It is a species of the same genus as the Rhododendron Crysanthmum, which has lately acquired much reputation in the cure of chronic rheumatism.

NEARLY allied to the Rhododendron is the genus Kalmia. Of this we have several species, and all of them are poisons. The Kalmia latifolia, or Broad-leaved Laurel, is best known to us. It kills sheep and other animals. Our Indians sometimes use a decoction of it to destroy themselves. In the county of Lancaster, an empiric has used the powdered leaves with success in certain stages of fevers, and in tinea capitis. A decoction of the plant externally applied has often cured the itch; but it must be used with great care, for thus applied it has been known to occasion disagreeable subsultus, or startings, and convulsions. I have given the powder of this plant internally in a case of fever, and have thus, at least, ascertained that it may be used with safety.

THE medical properties of our different species of Andromeda and Azalea, which in botanical character are very nearly akin to the Rhododendron and Kalmia, are but little known to me. I have long suspected that they are poisons. A decoction of

the Andromeda Mariana has been found useful as a wash in a disagreeable ulceration of the feet, which is not uncommon among the slaves, &c. in the southern states.

THE Gaultheria procumbens, which we call Mountain-Tea, is spread very extensively over the more barren, mountainous parts of the UnitedStates. It belongs to the same class as the plants just mentioned. I have made use of a strong infusion of this plant, which is evidently possessed of a stimulant and anodyne quality. I am told it has been found an useful medicine in cases of asthma. But I have not learned to what particular forms of this disease it is best adapted, nor in what manner it operates.

OUR native species of Laurus deserve to be investigated. The Camphor and the Cinnamon belong to this genus: but hitherto, they have not been discovered within the limits of the UnitedStates. The properties of the Common Sassafras, which is a species of Laurus, have not been sufficiently examined. It is the Laurus Sassafras of the botanists. I have already mentioned the bark. Its oil seems to be an useful medicine. I have been assured that this oil has been found an efficacious medicine, externally applied in cases of wens. This looks probable; for our medicine is nearly allied to camphor, which has been used with advantage in

bronchocele.* I knew a woman in whom an infusion or tea of the root of the Sassafras always induced an oppression at breast, with sighing, and depression of spirits.

DURING the late American war, necessity drove the inhabitants, in many parts of the United-States, to seek for a substitute for some of the spices to which they had been accustomed. They used the dried and powdered berries of the Laurus Benzoin, which we call Spice-Wood, and Wild-Alspice-Bush, and found them a tolerable substitute for alspice.†

THE celebrated Gynseng, or Panax quinquefolium, may, with propriety, be thrown into the class of stimulants. I find it difficult to speak of this plant with any degree of certainty. If it were not a native of our woods, it is probable that we should import it, as we do the teas of China and Japan, at a high price.

THE Eryngium aquaticum, or Water-Eryngo, is one of the stimulants which more especially act as sudorific. It is nearly allied in its qualities to

*The oil rubbed upon the head has been found very useful in killing lice. The bark, especially that of the root, powdered and mixed with pomatum, has the same effect.

"A decoction of the small twigs makes an agreeable drink in slow fevers, and is much used by the country people. It is said the Indians esteemed it highly for its medicinal virtues." Reverend Dr. M. Cutler.