Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/173

 Confederate Drug Conditions. 169

and drank, giving at the same time pills of rosin from the pine tree, with very small pieces of blue vitrol will cure obstinate cases of gon- orrhae, and is a substitute for copaiba, cubebs, etc.

"I raised lobelia from the seed, and found it to be a reliable emetic, useful in cough medicines, croup and asthma. I have re- lieved asthma with lobelia, and by smoking stramonium leaves. We, of course, used turpentine as an adjunct in all cases where indi- cated, which is the case in very many diseases, and in many a posi- tive curative agent.

"Onions and garlic were used as poultices in nearly all glandular enlargements, as are also poke-root, celery, pepper, parsley, sage, thyme, rue and other garden products. Many of the latter were used for the diseases of women and children.

"White sumac, red elm, prickly ash, and poke, will in connection with my black wash cure recent cases of syphilis. It will also cure many cases of chronic rheumatism. Peach-tree leaves and Samp- son's snake-root will cure most cases of incipient dyspepsia. Gargle made of sage and honey will cure most cases of sore throat, tonsil- itis, etc.

"For infants, calamus, catnip and soot teas are better than sooth- ing syrups with opiates."

Nearly every old practitioner in the South, to-day, is full of such reminiscences as the foregoing.

Notwithstanding the restrictions in inter-state commerce and the almost exclusive reliance on blockade runners for supplies, many druggists in these Southern towns and cities displayed much inge- nuity in the disposition of the stocks bought at auction at the sea- ports.

Mr. B. Metcalf, of Montgomery, relates that he attended an auc- tion sale, at Mobile, on one occasion, and, arriving late, found the cargo all sold except cod-liver oil and bees wax, which he succeded in purchasing. His two barrels of cod-liver oil and 600 pounds of bees-wax were immediately reshipped to Montgomery on the Ala- bama river. Filling every shape and size bottle to be found, and placing a judicious advertisement in the papers, he was enabled to sell the oil, but what to do with the bees-wax was a puzzler. Dis- covering a set of candle moulds and using cotton yarn as a wick, he ran the entire mass into candles and succeeded in selling the whole stock at ten cents apiece.

Nashville fell early in the action, and there was but little suffering