Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-16
COUNTRY DOCTOR CURES
SPRING MEDICINE THEY HAD TO
TAKE IN OLD TIMES.
Used to Work Wonders When Made
I'm Teas, Candy and
Bitters.

when / hear the first bluebird sing, ana
find feel of spring in the air, / am full
of delight mixed with apprehension" the
old doctor said, smiling whimsically. lou
see, 1 know nature will shortly begin ball
ancing books. No matter how folks have
lived the winter through-whether lavishly
or sparely-there is certain to be much that
needs remedying. Spring fever. understand.
is the physical correative OF spring house,
cleaning.
Sometimes am tempted to believe spring
fever is not disease at all, but normal
state-a mighty uncomfortable state, it Is
true. but one that comes around. more or
less strongly, with the progress of the sum
The longer live the more convinced am
of the intimate, the almost eerie, sympathy
betwixt all living things. Indeed, have
formulated for myself a doctrine OF vital
correlation, matching the correlation of
force. Maybe it is only whim-but L
have strong belief that the healing herbs
help us by giving back to us their own
or precious inner bark. Any herbalist will
tell you medicinal virtue lies mainly in those
parts. And any botanist or forester VIII
tell you further that 1t is in just those parts
plants keep their reserves Of life. Seeds
change in new plants. roots feed old ones,
and new and old, live and flourish by grace
Of the inner bark. Girdle tree, leaving
but an inch Of that inner bark intact, and
after a while swell the inch strip to the
dimensions Of trunk. By and by, say a
hundred years, the new trunk will have
overgrown and swallowed the almost fatal
scar. There will be burl, a sort OF squat
malformation to mark the scar, but the tree
itself will be sound and healthy. New
wood swelling from below and above will
have met, Joined over the dead tissue. and
ended by uniting so perfectly that new
wood layers form with perfect grain out
side Of the ak marks.
March Tonic.
1.-THE exordium Is longer than the SER
mon. began by way Of telling something
about our oid-time spring medicines. My!
How my wise women friends used to
help me through the season! Since l did
not scott at their wisdom, nothing in their
precious stores was too good for me. When
1 found an old man, a nursing woman, or
puny and pindling child with a sore
mouth, fever, reStleSsness and lack of APP
petite toward the end of March, L knew
what was needed-yellow puccoon. It's an
old plant. Materia medica recognizes 1t as
Hydrastis Canadensis, but it grows pretty
we'll all over these United States. Aside
from its medicinal qualities 1t has the curl
Gus property of dyeing linen yellow, though
it scarcely colors cotton, and gives a very
different hue, one muddy and dingy, to
silk and wool. The root of 1t Is the thing.
1t is fine, almost fringy, of bright golden
yellow, and when fresh dug has strongly
narcotic smell. Drying changes all that.
The dried root Is fragrant enough for
sachet. Indeed, / know few odors sweeter
and more grateful to weak nerves and
stomachs. The taste is intensely bitter
not nauseous bitter, but tonic, with a
clean bite, and most refreshing after
taste. Medically, the root is at once q
tonic, Alternative, laxative and diuretic No
wonder it was sovereign for sore mouths
which are nothing more than natures ad-
vertisements that the whole digestive tract
iS NV nf Iyalt
Most times the sick folk chewed the
dry puccoon root. If there We're pains and
rheumatic indications, Il bitter was made
from the puccoon root mixed with black
snake root, Cimfuga RacerGosa. Both were
infused for three days in the sunshine, hav-
ing been well covered with cold rain water.
The fnfuSionS were strained, mixed and put
into bottle with bits of native sarsapa-
rilla root. Whisky or brandy was added
in proportion of one-half or two-thirdS.
The dose was a wineglassfui often
the stomach would bear it. Where whole
families suffered from spring fever, there
was a big Jug of the bitters brewed. By
the time the jug was empty everybody was
well.
For Feverish Colds.
RED puccoon, Sanguinaria Candensis, IS
wholly unlike the yellow-in leaf, bloom,
root and properties. A quick but safe eme
tic, it was. along with indigo, the standby
in cases of Group. AS 1t is further good
laxative, and fine eXpectorant, it came into
play for every sort of feverlsh cold. 1t has
curious compound three-lobed leaf, dark
green richly notified with red. Where the
three lobes join there in a pert upstaud-
ing dull red flower, which country children
delight to call Jack-in-the-pulpit. In the
fall the flower Is succeeded by a clump
Of coral-red berries, nearly as gorgeous as
the seed Of ginseng, or the cones of In
dian turnip.
Indian turnip, by the way, was another
very present help in all manner of throat
and lung troubles, besides heavy colds. IL
the fiery furnace was any hotter than that
same root I'm mighty sorry for Shadrach.
Meshach and Abednego. It's whitening,
mountaineering holiness was sort of cross
betwixt horse-radish, cayenne pepper and
green persimmon. 1t was scraped and
swallowed where heroic treatment was nee
essary. II time permitted, 1t was either
infused in whisky or cooked with maple
sugar TO form burning candy. Either
way, 1T would knock a cough, and lung
soreness, galley-west in about twenty-four
hours
81 forgot to say, of the black snake root,
that's better than arnica for green wounds
and bruises. This Of course In tincture.
which is made by infusing the root a week
in cold water. straining and adding its
own bulk of whisky or alcohol"