The sublimate may be given in distilled water, or any other liquid that the patient chooses. I commonly order ten grains to be dissolved in an ounce of the spirit of wine, for the convenience of carriage, and let the patient take twenty or thirty drops of it night and morning, in half a glass of brandy or other spirits. Several roots, woods, and barks, have been recommended for curing the venereal disease; but none of them have been found, upon experience, to answer the high encomiums which had been bestowed upon them. Though no one of these is to be depended upon alone, yet, when joined with mercury, some of them are found to be very beneficial in promoting a cure. One of the best we know yet is sarsaparilla. The mezereon-root is likewise found to be a powerful assistant to the sublimate, or any other mercurial. It may either be used along with the sarsaparilla, or by itself. Those who choose to use the mezereon by itself, may boil an ounce of the fresh bark, taken from the root, in twelve English pints of water, to eight, adding towards the end an ounce of liquorice. The dose of this is the same as of the decoction of sarsaparilla. We have been told, that the natives of America cure the venereal disease, in every stage, by a decoction of the root of a plant called the Lobelia. It is used either fresh or dried; but we have no certain accounts with regard to the proportion. Sometimes they mix other roots with it, as those of the ranunculus, the ceanothus, &c.; but whether they are designed to disguise or assist it, is doubtful. The patient takes a large draught of the decoction early in the morning, and continues to use it for his ordinary drink throughout the day.[11] Footnote 11: Though we are still very much in the dark with regard to the method of curing this disease among the natives of America, yet it is generally affirmed that they do cure it with speed, safety, and success, and that without the least knowledge of mercury. Hence it becomes an object of considerable importance to discover their method of cure. This might surely be done by making trials of the various plants which are found in those parts, and particularly of such as the natives are known to make use of. All people in a rude state take their medicines chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, and are often possessed of valuable secrets with regard to the virtues of plants, of which more enlightened nations are ignorant. Indeed, we make no doubt but some plants of our own growth, were proper pains taken to discover them, would be found as efficacious in curing the venereal disease as those in America. It must, however, be remembered, that what will cure the venereal disease in one country, will not always be found to have equal success in another.