[112] Ten years earlier a vogue for rattlesnake root had been
established, apparently by those interested in promoting it.
On June 16, 1738, Benjamin Waller wrote to the editor of the
_Virginia Gazette_ extolling the virtues of rattlesnake root
in a testimonial. He claimed it cured him quickly of the
gout, and, he wrote, "I am also fully convinced this Medicine
has saved the Lives of many of my Negroes, and others in that
Disease, which rages here, and is by many called a
_Pleurisy_; And that it is a sure Cure in a Quartan Ague."
Two weeks later the _Gazette_ carried "Proposals for Printing
by Subscription a _Treatise_ on the DISEASES of _Virginia_
and the Neighbouring Colonies ... To which is annexed, An
Appendix, showing the strongest Reasons, _a priori_, that the
Seneca Rattle-Snake Root must be of more use than any
Medicine in the _Materia Medica_."
[113] See GEORGE B. GRIFFENHAGEN and JAMES HARVEY YOUNG, "Old
English Patent Medicines in America," (paper 10 in
_Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology:
Papers 1-11_, U.S. National Museum Bulletin 218, by various
authors; Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1959).
[114] _The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover,
1709-1712_, edit. Louis B. Wright and Marian Tingling.
(Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Press, 1941), p. 188 (for
example).