The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-10
COUNTRY DOCTOR cunEs.
Old Time Spring Medicines Like Yell
low PuccOon, Black Snake Root
and Indian Turnipx That Used to
Work wonders When Made With


Work Wonders When Made With
Teas, Candy, Bitters, Etc.
By Martha McCulloch- williams.
when l hear the first blue bird sing,
and find feel of spring in the air, am
full of delight mixed with apprehension"
the old doctor said, smiling whimsically:
You see, know nature will shortly be-
gin balancing books. No matter how
folks have lived the winter through
whether layishly or sparely, there is GER
tain to be much that needs remedying.
Spring fever, understand, is the physical
correlative of spring housekeeping.
Sometimes 1 am tempted to believe
spring fever is not a disease at all, but
a normal state-a mighty uncomfortable
state it is true, but one that comes
around more or less strongly, with the
progress of the sun. The longer / live
the more convinced I am of the intimate,
the almost eerie sympathy betwixt all
living things. Indeed, l have formulated
for myself a doctrine of vital corrella-
ton, 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 latent
vitality stored up in root, or seed, or pre-
cious inner bark. Any herbaist will tell
you medicinal virtue lies mainly in those
parts. And any botanist or forester will
tell you further that it is in just those
parts plants keep their reserves OF life.
Seed 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 the tree will dive, heal It's own
hurts, and after a while swell the inch
to tho diunensionS of "A trunk. RV
and by, say 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 outside of the
axe-marks.
''The exordum is longer than the ser
mon. l began by way of telling some
thing about our old-time spring medi-
cines. MY! How my wise women friends
used to help me through the season! Since
1 did not scott at their wisdom, nothing
in their most precious stores was too
good for me. When found an old man,
a nursing woman, or puny and pind-
ling child with sore mouth, fever, rest
end of March, l knew what was needed
yellow puccoon. It's an old plant. Ma
terra Medlca recognizes 1t as Hydrastis
Canadensis but it grows pretty we'll all
over these United States. Aside from its
medicinal qualities it has the curious
property of dyeing linen yellow, though
il scarcely colors cotton and gives very
different, hue, one muddy and
dingy to silk and wool.
T.
fine, almost fringy, of a bright golden yell
low, and when fresh-dug has a strongly
narcotic smell. Drying changes all that.
The dried root is fragrant enough for a
sachet. Indeed / know few doors sweet
er and more grateful to weak nerves and
stomachs. The taste is intensely bitter
not a nauseous bitter, but tonic, with a
clean bite, and a most refreshing after
taste. Medically, the root is at once a
| tonic, Alternative, laxative and diuretic.
No wonder 1t was sovereign for sore
mouths-which are nothing more than ma
lures advertisements that the whole d.
| gestive tract is sadly out of killer.
Most times the sick folk chewed the
dry puccoon root. If there was pains,
and rheumatic indications, a bitter was
made from the puccoon root, mixed with
| black snake root, Cimifuga Racemosa.
Both were infused for three days, in the
sunshine, having been WeM covered with
cold rain water. The infusions were
strained, mixed, and put into bottle with
bits of native sarsaparilla root. Whisky
or brandy was added in proportion of one
half or two thirds. The dose was a wine
| glaSsful as often as the stomach suffered
from spring fever, there was a big jug
OF the bitters brewed. BY time the jug
| was empty, everybody was we'll.
Red puccoon, Sanguinaria Canadensis,
| is wholly unlike the yellow-in leaf, bloom
root and properties. A quick but safe
| emetic, it was, along with indigo the
standby IN cases OF Group. AS it is furth-
er good laxative, and fine expectorant
it came into play for every sort of fever
| ish cold. 1t has a curious compound
| three-lobed leaf, dark green richly mot
| tied with red. Where the three-lobed Join
there is pert outstanding dull red flow
| er, which country children delight TO cail
Jack-n-the-pulpit. In the fall the flower
is succeeded by a clump of coral-red ber-
ries, nearly as gorgeous as the seed of
| ginseng, or the cones of Indian turnip
Indian turnip, by the way, was another
very present help in all manner of throat
| and lung troubles besides heavy colds If
the fiery furnace was any hotter than that
same root I'm mighty sorry for Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. It's whitening,
Notwithstanding hotness-a sort of cross
| betwixt horse-radish, cayenne pepper and
a green persimmon. II was scraped and
swallowed where heroic treatment was