Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

4 O'Keeffe, on the Properties of Dogwood Bark. [January,the stomach and bowels, we have not seen a solitary wellmarkedinstance, though we have exhibitedit in unusually largedoses, and under all circumstances which would centra-indicatethe use of a remedy possessing such properties.Let it suffice here, merely to have expressed these convictions,leaving the considerations by which they are substantiatedto be adduced, when commenting upon special cases hereinaftercited.It is curious to reflect, why an indigenous plant of such importantmedical properties should have fallen into disrepute inthe very infancy of its carrer. The reason of this, however, issufficiently obvious. It will be borne in mind, that the investigationsalluded to in the commencement of this article were allinstituted in a region, where, from the nature of the climate,malarial fevers received but little or no attention, and at a time,too, when an interpretation of its modus operandi was biassedby the prevailing doctrine as to the pathology of fever.Whyit is that minute practical observation has not subverted theseunfounded theoretical assertions—or why the master-spirits ofthe profession have been governed by the ipse dixits of others,in relation to the effects and mode of operation of this remedy,are problems which will devolve upon the Southern practitionerfor solution. Had the various forms of periodical fever composedso large a share of the Northern physician^s practice, thefar-off Quito alone yielding him the sheet-anchor of his hopes,as it is with Southern practitioners, the opinion is unhesitatinglyexpressed that the Dogwood bark, and its preparations, wouldhave been among our most popular remedies.In view, therefore, of these considerations, and the absoluteimpossibility of having the curative virtues of any anti-periodicsufficiently tested in the region alluded to, we naturally refer tothe records of M( dicine in the South, and even here, we findour anticipations disappointed.Bearing in mind that periodical fever is the endemic diseaseof the Southern climate, and the high amount of expenditureincurred by the unlimited use of Quinine—if the success of thetreatment here pursued has been truly represented, then theimportance of substituting an indigenous agent would 1 e fullyappreciated, and its universal adoption confer incalculablebenefits.