The bruised leaves are frequently applied to ulcers and recent wounds, and, it is said, with good effect. They are also used as an external application in cutaneous affections; and I have heard of the expressed juice being successfully applied to different species of herpes. The leaves are also used in the country to dress blisters, with the view of promoting their discharge. * * * For this purpose I can recommend them where it is desirable to promote a large and speedy discharge, and no stimulating ointment is at hand. _Colden_ recommends the skunk cabbage in scurvy.--_Op. cit._, p. 132. _Bigelow._--The odor of the Ictodes resides in a principle which is extremely volatile. I have not been able to separate it by distillation from any part of the plant, the decoction and the distilled water being in my experiments but slightly impregnated with its sensible character. Alcohol, digested on the plant, retains its odors for a time, but this is soon dissipated by exposure to the air. An acrid principle resides in the root, even when perfectly dry, producing an effect like that of the Arum and the Ranunculi. When chewed in the mouth, the root is slow in manifesting its peculiar taste; but after some moments a pricking sensation is felt, which soon amounts to a disagreeable smarting, and continues for some time. This acrimony is readily dissipated by heat. The decoction retains none of it. The distilled water is impregnated with it, if the process be carefully conducted, but loses it on standing a short time.--_Amer. Med. Bot._, 2, 45. To insure a tolerably uniform activity of this medicine, the root should be kept in dried slices, and not reduced to powder until it is wanted for use.--_Op. cit._, p. 49. A number of cases have fallen under my own observation of the catarrhal affections of old people, in which a syrup prepared from the root in substance has alleviated and removed the complaint.--_Op. cit._, p. 48. In delicate stomachs I have found it frequently to occasion vomiting even in a small quantity. In several cases of gastrodynia, where it was given with a view to its anti-spasmodic effect, it was ejected from the stomach more speedily than common cathartic medicines. I have known it in a dose of thirty grains to bring on not only vomiting, but headache (_sic_), vertigo and temporary blindness.--_Op. cit._, pp. 48-49. _Hand._--The root is a pungent anti-spasmodic in colics and griping of the bowels. Leaves bruised relieve painful swellings, whitlows, etc.--_House Surg. and Phys._, p. 250. _Eberle._--In chronic cough attended with a cold, phlegmatic habit of body, I have employed the powdered root of this plant with the most decided benefit. In an old man who had been for many years afflicted with a very troublesome cough and difficulty of breathing, I found nothing to give so much relief as this substance.