Note 633 — PHARMACOLOGIA. (continued 6)

The English physicians do not do justice to this valuable article. In this country it enjoys a high and deserved reputation. As a remedy in Croup it has long been esteemed as one of our most efficient resources, and more recently it has been very warmly recommended as a powerful emmenagogue. In Croup, it should not be given until after the use of venesection and other evacuants. It may then be administered in the form of decoction, prepared from half an ounce of the bruised root boiled in eight ounces of water down to four. Of this a tea spoonful is to be taken every hour or half hour as circumstances may require. When used as an emmenagogue, the decoction is to be prepared by simmering in a close vessel ℥j of the bruised root in a pint of boiling water, until it is reduced about one third—of this four ounces are to be taken daily, and to be increased as far as the stomach will bear, at the menstrual period. Ed.