277. SOLIDAGO Virga aurea. GOLDEN ROD. Flowers and Leaves. D.--The
leaves have a moderately astringent bitter taste, and hence prove
serviceable in debility and laxity of the viscera, and disorders
proceeding from that cause.
278. SPARTIUM scoparium. BROOM. Tops and Seeds. L. D.-These have a
nauseous bitter taste: decoctions of them loosen the belly, promote
urine, and stand recommended in hydropic cases. The flowers are said to
prove cathartic in decoction, and emetic in substance, though in some
places, as Lobel informs us, they are commonly used, and in large
quantity, in salads, without producing any effect of this kind. The
qualities of the seeds are little better determined: some report that
they purge almost as strongly as hellebore, in the dose of a dram and a
half; whilst the author above mentioned relates, that he has given a
decoction of two ounces of them as a gentle emetic.
279. SPIGELLA marylandica. WORM GRASS. Root. L. E. D.-About forty years
ago, the anthelmintic virtues of the root of this plant were discovered
by the Indians; since which time it has been much used here. I have
given it in hundreds of cases, and have been very attentive to its
effects. I never found it do much service, except when it proved gently
purgative. Its purgative quality naturally led me to give it in febrile
diseases which seem to arise from viscidity in the primae viae; and in
these cases it succeeded to admiration, even when the sick did not void
worms.
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