SARSAPARILLA.
667
I^ins of a rheumatic character, &c. Sarsaparilla differs in severalAspects from the bitter vegetable tonics. Though it is not devoid of,it does not, as they do, abound, in a bitter principle. It is not^•apted for the cure of intermittents, or of simple debility. But itsest effects are seen in those depraved conditions of system which thePublic, and even some medical men, ascribe to the presence of a mor-lhc poison, or to a deranged condition of the fluids. Hence it is fre-Jpiently denominated a purifier of the blood. Those who do not adoptfle Pathological notion here referred to, call it an alterative.
Those varieties of sarsaparilla which abound in starch (as the Hon-Ur as kind) possess demulcent and nutritive properties.
Uses. —By many practitioners sarsaparilla is considered to possess nopWiedial properties; by others it is regarded as a medicine of greate ®cacy. Considering that more than 100,000 lbs. of it are annuallyc °nsunied in this country, the number of those who entertain the latter^Pinion cannot be small. It has been justly remarked by Mr. Lawrence^ect. on Surg. Lond. Med. Gaz. vol. v. p. 770), that physicians have noConfidence in it, and surgeons a great deal. I think that this fact isf Ca, lily explained by the circumstance, that physicians are much lessfluently called in to prescribe for those forms of disease, in the treat-e nt of which, surgeons have found sarsaparilla so efficacious.
Many practitioners have doubted or denied its remedial activity onaa b it must be admitted, are very plausible grounds; viz. that thepossesses very little taste and no smell; that by the ordinary. de of using it, it produces very slight, if any, obvious effects onanimal economy; and that it has failed in their hands to relieve, cure diseases in which others have asserted they found it effectual.^ a ey are, therefore, disposed to refer any improvement of a patient’sCalth, under the long-continued use of sarsaparilla, either to naturalGanges in the constitution, or to the influence of the remedial meansn 1 " 1 which the sarsaparilla was conjoined. But I would observe,hitherto no experiments have been made to ascertain what effects,, e long-continued employment of sarsaparilla may give rise to ine system of a healthy man, and we arc not warranted in assuming that0 ? ne would result because none are observable from the employmenta few doses. Moreover, it is to be remembered that some of our most' °"'erful poisons prove the most efficacious remedies, when given in such0^11 doses that they excite no other obvious effect on the system thane removal of morbid symptoms. Witness the beneficial influence offfiute doses of arsenious acid in lepra. Furthermore, no one hascribed to sarsaparilla the power of a specific, and its warmest advocates^ In >t its occasional failure. But so often has it been found, that variousSe ases, which had resisted all other tried remedial means, and w'ere^dually increasing, became stationary, and afterwards subsided, under• e use of sarsaparilla, that a large majority of British surgeons,puding the most eminent of the present day, have been compelled topit its therapeutic power.
no obvious relationship exists between its known physiologicale cts and its apparent therapeutic agency, an argument has been, ls _ e d against its medicinal activity, on the ground that we cannot ex-to a m its methodus medcndi ; but, for the same reason, we might refusea dniit the power of cinchona to cure ague. Mr. Lawrence [op. cit.
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